Considerations for garden obsy.

[Hoshii]

I'm returning to the hobby and thinking that at some time in future an obsy would aid with equipment usage as well as help with comfort from the elements (I can't spend a lot of time out in the cold) and reduce impact from neighbourly light pollution. It's not a big garden but small trees, shrubs, etc. would need to be relocated (and I think I can get approval to do this under cover of garden redesign/improvements ...). The viewing is OK north and south (over fences), west (over rooftops), but not much at all east (except for some limited points NNE and then a little access SSE in winter as tall trees drop leaves). The garden lies east/west and I think a location at the east side of the garden would optimise available sky. If I went toward the west side of the garden to be able to cover NNE and SSE it would be nearer the property and likely to raise more objections on the view from the kitchen window, etc. Another consideration is noise from the mount slewing, etc. possibly raising objections (or increasing light pollution) from neighbours. How can I go about optimising the actual position of a potential site for the obsy (is there some way to calculate the view, angles, etc.)? 

 

[jiberjaber]

I made an artificial horizon in Kstars using my scope and mount in my usual location which then gives me a very good idea of what I can see where and when, from this info I then stood in that location and in my other options for where I might want to mount the scope and concluded through trial and error the location for my pier, based on the compromises.  It took a while of slewing the mount and plotting points to get the horizon, I think there might be an app on Iphones to do similar but doesn't load in to Kstars - maybe other software though? 

In the picture below, there are 2 horizons, the dark red was the telescope on my decking and the darkest colour is the scope on my patio (present prefered tripod position) the bottom is my house roof etc (Scutum is where the kitchen single story extension is, Vulpecula is the gutter/ridge of my roof line) The remainder from Andromeda round to Scorpius is vegetation (trees/large laurel etc)  I'll be interested to see what first light on the new pier location gives me relative to this when I eventually get the adaptor for the top of it! I'm hoping for a bit more view to the south over the kitchen extension.

 

 

[GuLinux]

A perhaps easier way to do the same is to use Stellarium, and a panoramic photo app. On android I found "Google Street View" photospheres to be an excellent solution for this.

There's an article explaining the whole procedure on Sky at Night here: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/diy/stellarium-how-to-create-a-customised-landscape/

[Hoshii]

Thank you, that's very helpful and will provide the information needed.

[Hoshii]

27 minutes ago, GuLinux said:

A perhaps easier way to do the same is to use Stellarium, and a panoramic photo app. On android I found "Google Street View" photospheres to be an excellent solution for this.

There's an article explaining the whole procedure on Sky at Night here: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/diy/stellarium-how-to-create-a-customised-landscape/

Thanks. I'll check that out too.