Hello from the far north!

[Taiga]

Hi everyone,

I live in Fairbanks, Alaska, latitude 65N. I have been dabbling in astronomy for over 40 years, but I've gradually lost the bug. I fell victim to "aperture fever," and purchased a 10" F/5.6 dob with a crude helical focuser.

One might think that the stargazing this far north would be wonderful. After all, the sun barely clears the horizon for a mere 3.5 hrs in December. Unfortunately, auroral sky glow usually washes out the night sky giving us a limiting visual magnitude of 4.5 at best. Also the seeing is usually atrocious. I have never seen an airy disc in my life.

For me, a big reflector is both a beast (mine won't fit in my car) and a waste of aperture. A few days ago, I bought a Celestron NexStar SLT 127. It's cheap, easy, and portable. Now I just need a clear night...

The attached photo was taken on a rare dark night. It's an unguided image of the winter Milky Way taken with a Canon Eos 5Dmk II and a 35mm f/1.4 lens. I used Photoshop to convert it to b&w, then tweaked exposure and contrast for best appearance.

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. Auroral activity as light pollution is certainly very different from here.

[Mr Spock]

Hi, welcome to SGL I like your idea of light pollution - wish we had that here!

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Taiga, welcome.

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome.

Peter

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, Taiga!

Baseball fan?

Dana

[glowjet]

Hi Taiga and welcome to SGL, not the usual light pollution to say the least, but on those rare dark nights, as your image shows, the observing must be a dream, enjoy the forum

[JamesM]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Really like your image and hope to se more in the near future.

Clear skies and hope you enjoy your stay here.

[swag72]

Hi and welcome to SGL - Fairbanks I guess is the very same that I see on 'Ice Road Truckers'

Look forward to seeing you around

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire

[triton1]

Hi there and welcome to SGL

[Vox45]

Hello and welcome to the forum

Clear skies !

[Hitman77]

Hi from Edinburgh in the UK - what a cracking pic you shared. Never thought of aurora as lp before but it makes total sense just like how I tend to view the moon as a nuisance these days

Andy

[Snowfall]

Hello and welcome to the lounge!

Here in my area it's almost impossible to watch stars just with your eyes, unfortunately I don't have a telescope or binocular yet, but I'll figure out soon whether that helps more or not. (I'm pretty confident)

Clear skies!

[orion25]

Welcome, Taiga. Never thought about the effect of auroral activity on viewing in the far north. Beautiful image!

Regards,

Reggie

[Dave In Vermont]

Greetings and welcome aboard, Taiga! Wow! I know how to complain to the city about light-pollution from their streetlights. But who would you complain to about an Aurora Borealis?

Amazed -

Dave

[The Head Gardener]

On 02/01/2016 at 20:03, Taiga said:

 

One might think that the stargazing this far north would be wonderful. After all, the sun barely clears the horizon for a mere 3.5 hrs in December. Unfortunately, auroral sky glow usually washes out the night sky giving us a limiting visual magnitude of 4.5 at best.

 

Hi from another newbie,

Your LP problem is one I would cheerfully take on.  Want to swap?

Jayne

[BGazing]

welcome! to each his own version of the light pollution...

[todd8137]

Hi and welcome from me 

pat

[Charon]

Welcome aboard.