Bortle 6 vs 4 skies

[Diddykong]

My house is under Bortle 6 skies but I can drive to 4 skies witin 30 minutes.  Is this worth doing for deep space photography?  I've seen incredible results even under bortle 8 skies.

 

[alacant]

Hi

If you'll be observing whilst you're snapping, go to the darker site. Otherwise, I'd stay where you are; you'll get a lot more imaging done;)

Just my €0.02.

Cheers and HTH

 

[david_taurus83]

Depends. Narrowband can be done from home and brighter broadband targets, ie M42, M31 etc. For dark reflection nebulae, like the Iris nebula or Withces Head Nebula, then a dark sky is better for these. I'm bortle 6 with 3 streetlights shining into my back garden so it's a bit of a struggle. I have access to a bortle 5 site (private car park with no lights and unobstructed views) but the travel, setup, image, strip down, etc all adds up and eats into imaging time. I'm more inclined to put up with my LP and just get as much data as possible from home.

[Diddykong]

Thanks for the replies Alacant and David. 

I also live next to a very quiet park (golf course) with zero lights.  There is obviously some street and house light pollution in my back garden so would it make a difference if I went the 1000 feet as the crow flies to the park to image or would it still be the same as my back garden? 

[david_taurus83]

It sounds like you are on the limit of 6 and 5 as I have to travel an hour south to get to a 4 site. As long as you can shield your scope from direct glare of lights, then I'd try from home. Dew shield on a refractor helps to keep glare off the glass. If you have a Newtonian I would put a dew shield on that as well but only to keep glare away from the secondary.

[Diddykong]

Thank you David.  So as long as there is no street light glare in the scope there is no real effect from light pollution going to the dark park?  The light pollution is the same in the atmosphere above? Regardless of if i am 500 feet away or so

[david_taurus83]

The darker the sky the better. Skyglow can be dealt with in image processing fairly easily. Whereas if you are pointing directly over a streetlight you will have a really bad gradient on one side of your image and this is difficult to correct in processing. What kit do you plan to use?

[Diddykong]

I'm in  the process of deciding between the HEQ5 or NEQ6 mount (or even the EQ6-R).  And starting off with an 80 ED type scope, but plan on also getting a 250 pds for different types of deep space objects an 80 ED wouldn't work well with.  I hope that makes sense, if not please correct be as i'm completely new and still trying to get my head around all of this!

[david_taurus83]

The 250 PDS is a big lump and you will want an EQ6 size mount at least for that. I'd start with the ED80 and flattener and see how you get on. The mount is the most important bit of kit though. The better it tracks and guides, the easier it is for you! What camera?

[Diddykong]

I have a Canon EOS 1300D at the moment, however was looking at getting a https://www.altairastro.com/altair-hypercam-183c-pro-tec-cooled-colour-20mp-astronomy-imaging-camera-w-4gb-ddr3-ram-47-p.asp. 

At £800 would eat into my budget however.

Will the ED80 be able to pick up smaller galaxies and also be ok for tracking asteroids?

[smr]

I'd say it's worth it if you don't mind lugging your gear there. Bortle 4 is a big difference to Bortle 6. I have Bortle 5 at home which is near 6. But my holiday home on the East Coast is a Bortle 4/3 and the skys definitely darker, a nice velvety black.

The darkest skies I've seen were on a holiday in Wales in a Bortle 3/2 location. I was absolutely stunned by the amount of stars I could see. Would be a dream to image there.

[vlaiv]

I would not dismiss going to the dark site.

I did some calculations between my current site and future one - first is 18.5 and second is 20.8. That is about 2 mags of difference. For my imaging gear an intended targets that means x6 in imaging time!

I usually image for 4h a night. That would mean that one night in dark site would be equal to almost a week of good weather and imaging every night.

Bortle 6 -> 4 is similar if not the same difference in sky quality, and don't be fooled by the fact that you'll spend some time getting there and that you might spend less time on target. Results will be worth it.