Why i dont do DSO

[nightfisher]

First up please no comments suggesting criminal damage.

I have just taken these from my back yard, showing the yard lights in the factory on the hill about a mile from home, taken with a pocket camera mounted on a tripod just to show how bad it is, coupled with her next door whose kids have to sleep with the light on and curtains not drawn, think i will just stick to the Moon and planets

[John]

I agree, that does not look good for DSO's. Double stars, clusters and planetary nebulae should be OK if you want a change from the Moon and planets

[Nyctimene]

As John said above, some planetarys should still be doable with O III or UHC filters, when well above the horizon. Give it a try!

Stephan

[Knighty2112]

Reminds me of the movie 'Close encounters of the third kind' a little! Yikes!  

[nightfisher]

11 minutes ago, John said:

I agree, that does not look good for DSO's. Double stars, clusters and planetary nebulae should be OK if you want a change from the Moon and planets

I do sometimes have a look at a few doubles, but im lucky in another way as i get the ecliptic over the house, so im good for Luna and planets

[mikeDnight]

I know you said there isn't a lot of room in your back garden Jules, but couldn't you squeeze in a 6 ft square, 6ft high structure with a run off roof to shield you from those lights? You could paint it pretty colours and let the boss put hanging baskets on it!  ????

I've got a led street light at the end of the garden path and flood lighting on a recreation ground about 50m away, but none of them affect me in my little run off as the walls just cover their line of sight. It really does make a massive difference!

I seem to have deleted the external pics of my humble little obs, but if you show your good lady how cozy it could be, she may be persuaded.

Mike 

 

 

[nightfisher]

Mike , its not a problem, i dont have a great interest in deep sky any way, this post is not a moan, just a bored person on a sunday eve showing how bad those lights are

[cloudsweeper]

Holy Mackerel, Jules - makes my view look really good!  Have you got a dedicated solar 'scope?

Doug.

[bottletopburly]

Send pics to said factory ask if it would be possible to tilt lights down at more of an angle ,not a unreasonable request .

[nightfisher]

@cloudsweeper Im not all that interested in Solar, so wont be having a dedicated Solar scope

@bottletopburly Yes i could email them with pics and politely ask them to make amends but they wont, this is the company that transports rotten animal waste products all round the area, sometimes spilling the cattle lungs and other such items on our roads

I would say the pics highlight why i was a bit reluctant to spend big money on the ED`120

[xtreemchaos]

that's like inky darkness compared to where I used to live in hull, I know its not good all those light but it could be worse mate, my cup is allways hafe full.  charl.

[Alien 13]

Thats a lot better than my sky and I manage DSO fine (AP).

Alan

[Knighty2112]

8 minutes ago, xtreemchaos said:

that's like inky darkness compared to where I used to live in hull, I know its not good all those light but it could be worse mate, my cup is allways hafe full.  charl.

Don't you just know it Charl. My Hull home has three street lamps blazing away in the back way, and two in the front of my home. I do however still manage to snag a few DSO's though. Hoping with the new (to me anyway) SW200 Explorer will tease out a few more still, even from my light polluted garden!

Wish the council would adapt a curfew to turn the lights off at 11pm though! Here's hoping!  

[happy-kat]

It's better than mine and your sky looks quite dark.

[xtreemchaos]

I feel your pain Gus, I lived up heddon road not far from the refinerys thay was lit up like a Christmas trees, I used to escape to skipsea near brid to get better skys. charl.

[Knighty2112]

3 minutes ago, xtreemchaos said:

I feel your pain Gus, I lived up heddon road not far from the refinerys thay was lit up like a Christmas trees, I used to escape to skipsea near brid to get better skys. charl.

That would have been real bad for you to observe from Charl. I live in the NW area of Hull near Ennerdale, going out to Beverley way so the skies at least don't have the lights from the refinery on show. 

[Paul73]

I a DSO junky, but even I'd skip the DSO's from home if I had that lot to contend with. Like you say; stick to the bright stuff and save yourself a heap of frustration.

I have a 10" Flexitube Dob as a fun DSO travel scope. It never gets used at home for different reasons. But does get taken on family weekends away if there is a chance of some proper dark sky.

Paul

 

 

[Starlight 1]

Remind me of close encounters of the third kind.

[Starlight 1]

2 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

 

Reminds me of the movie 'Close encounters of the third kind' a little! Yikes!

 

I did not look at the posts till after my one post. mashed potato

[scarp15]

Those lights are truly horrible and just typical of the ignorance of unnecessary light pollution problems that impinge from ever sprawling urbanisation. You do seem to have good open vistas though which will be good for tracking lunar, planetary, brighter DSO's. Perhaps most on here from a home base perspective have to tolerate some form of and unnecessary lighting abuse, restrictive view and thermal issues. My compact backyard has fairly high walls which helps a bit, recently particularly weekday evenings, I will grab ten minutes just sat on a bench with bino's and perhaps monopod for a scan and a fix to whatever is available to view. Though fairly infrequent, successful dark sky trips make up for it.

[ronin]

The general sky looks darker then mine, mine is an unpleasant yellow or white. at anything above horizontal. Can be seen as a dome of light 8 to 10 miles away.

 

[RobertI]

I really sympathise Jules. Dark skies are a challenge for us astronomers. After fifteen years living within 20 metres of three 'in your face' vitorian style streetlights (hence my move to EAA) I now have a blissfully dark sky, at least for the next few months until I move again. But last night I peered out into the garden at 11pm and a nieghbour's 500W floodlight was inlluminating the ENTIRE neighbourhood. If I lived in the middle of a field in Norfolk, there would a police helicopter hovering above me with a spotlight shining down! I hope you find a way round your problems.

[Dave In Vermont]

You may find some good and usable information from these folks:

http://darksky.org/

LP can actually make people sick, and cause brain-damage in growing children. A tact to use to get people to turn off their lights.

Dave

[Paz]

3 hours ago, Starlight 1 said:

Remind me of close encounters of the third kind.

Spooky - that is EXACTLY what I was thinking!

[JOC]

The thing is the actual sky above looks fairly dark.  If you guillotined the photos and lost the lights the actual sky doesn't look too bad.  A tall windbreak (I've got a 6ft + one - or fairly simple to construct with some long poles, canvas and a sewing machine) planted in some buckets of builders sand or small cobbles, Or a tall clothes airer with a blanket slung over it just to ensure your eyes couldn't see the lights directly might make the world of difference.  Alternatively do you have another direction you can look in?  I live next to a factory burning floodlights all night (NNE) and my West is not as good as my South and East due to a yellowy glow from a town, but my South and East are pretty good and there is lots I can see there or even more vertically.  So I've been enjoying Venus to the West (on the odd clear nights in January - so far no outings in February at all - I missed the only two clear nights whilst I was away!) - not even a yellowy glow can trounce Venus and looking for other interesting things in my good directions.  Maybe we all ought to take photos of our own light pollution problems and post them and them and see who has the biggest problems - 4 photos N, S E & W.