Backyard astronomy

[Joel Camunias]

The bug started back in the early 2000's with my first department store 3 inch Newtonian. It was nearly unuseable. I could see the moon but poorly. This was before I  learned about collimation. Later l purchased a better one on an equatorial  mount which confounded me to no end but it got me learning about the night sky. Then got annoyed with reflectors and got an achromatic refractor with a goto. It worked most of the time and I got a glimpse of some of the wonders in a dark sky.

Fast forward to the present with a high end refractor on an undriven GEM mount. These days we are confined to backyard (urban visual )astronomy. Light pollution is ever present. With a UHC filter, I am limited to viewing planets when available and and double stars. It has been a very cold and cloudy spring so it has been a poor period for astronomy. With longer day lights approaching,  "grab and go" is more the norm. On those tired nights, that is when the second hobby kicks in!

I would be happy to hear from other visual urbanites out there and their favourite celestial objects and how they adapt this hobby.

[JeremyS]

8 minutes ago, Joel Camunias said:

Fast forward to the present with a high end refractor on an undriven GEM mount.

Welcome Joel...we've got just the thread for a pic of that:

 

[TerryMcK]

Welcome Joel. I was a urban visual only astronomer for several years and was always confounded by light pollution in my urban Bortle 7 skies. Then I decided to go down the Astrophotography route and use filters at home and am now astonished by the images I can take. So you could say I did adapt but went down the expensive path.

[Sunshine]

Welcome! from near you in Stouffville, i too am mainly a visual guy who occasionally snaps images of planets with a cheapie camera, enjoy your stay at SGL.

[CloudMagnet]

Im similar to Terry above. I started out a 5 inch newtonian and while it was decent for planets and open clusters- I got aperture fever and wanted to see more, so I upgraded to a skywatcher 200p. I live in Bortle 6-7 skies so when M31 showed up to be a little grey smudge and didn't look that much better than looking through binoculars that are older than me, I knew I had to try something else. So I decided to move on to astrophotography to give me the opportunity to view objects that couldnt be seen otherwise.

Fast forward 9 months or so and I havent gone back to visual once. I probably will later in the summer for the planets but it just can't compete for DSO's. Light polution has put an end to that for most dim objects. Its also a nice technical challange that can be fun (when everything works) and seeing an image building up as the night goes on is a really great feeling.

[banjaxed]

Hi Joel, welcome to SGL.

[sloz1664]

Hi Joel, and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Steve

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Joel, welcome.

[Dr Strange]

Hi Joel and welcome! I too deal with heavy light pollution (LP). There are a few things that come to mind for you. First ditch the UHC filter. It tends to really dim down anything other than nebulae. Second planets and the moon should be good. They are really not affected by LP. Third open clusters that are magnitude 8 and lower should be fine. Forth things like galaxies and globular clusters are also doable. Although dim, especially the galaxies, they can still be seen and you are bagging galaxies. 5th all the Messier objects should be visible as well. For the Nebulae the UHC filter comes into play. 

[Dr Strange]

Sorry Joel. I forgot to add that an additional way to "see" things is to do Electronically Assisted Visual Astronomy. That is where you connect a camera to the focuser and use a laptop to view objects. The human eye can only process light in real time. With a camera you can actually capture many more photons over time then stack those exposures into a singe image. So for example you can use a DSLR or inexpensive CCD to capture ten 4 second exposures. Giving you an image that is over 40 seconds instead of the millisecond exposure your eye gives you. You get a lot more detail that way. There is a forum here dedicated to the subject if you want more information. 

[Joel Camunias]

Good suggestions and new things to try.  I need to get out of my comfort zone to try the enhanced viewing ideas here. Thanks all!

[ronl]

Hi and welcome to the community, see you around the forums.

Clear Sky's.

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂