Light Pollution

[PeterStudz]

Although I can certainly see the attraction, and the pictures you can get and have shown are stunning, I’m not too interested in “proper” astrophotography. Well, at the moment! Of course even pointing a camera down the lens of a telescope is astrophotography it doesn’t involve stacking and processing on a computer afterwords. Because I don’t need one I don’t own a PC/Mac/laptop and that makes full blown astrophotography possible.

I do enjoying the sitting outside in the middle of the night bit!  I’ve even started sketching. Although not so much sitting at a computer. But people like different things and that’s part of what makes it fun.

[Padraic M]

@PeterStudz fully agree. I've gone down the AP rabbit hole recently, and sometimes I realise that I haven't actually looked through a telescope in ages. Different strokes.

I'm now thinking about getting a cheap and practical scope for visual only - maybe even an ST80 or ST100, so I can observe sometimes, especially if I have guests or while the imaging scope is doing its thing. Guests don't realise how big a job it is for me if they want to look through my imaging scope!

[Goldfinger]

To everyone that replied and offered advice....THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Don't know whether I would even be getting into this without your help so thanks again.

[philhilo]

A bit late to the party but I would totally say don't worry about the light pollution! I live in a bortle 8, surrounded by an international airport, a major car manufacturing plant and a city of 1 million people and I produce images that blow my mind. I image for long periods, 8-12 hours, mostly image in narrowband which excludes bulk of the light pollution and most importantly have organised my kit so it requires the least effort possible to get imaging - that is the biggest barrier. Also check out Cuiv the Lazy Geek on Youtube, he images from a tower block in central Tokyo and wins awards (and has imaged from the base of the tallest brightest tower in Tokyo)! 

Attached is my image of the Pacman nebula shot from my back garden.

Pacman final 1.tiff

[Basementboy]

57 minutes ago, philhilo said:

I image for long periods, 8-12 hours

The OP was asking about visual observing, not photography – what they could see, and whether it's worth buying a telescope to see it

[nfotis]

Went down that hole recently in a light polluted city (Athens) - even being ten km away from the city center means that you can barely discern many stars with naked eyes.

Started with using a Skymax 127 Maksutov scope, first on a camera tripod (barely adequate), later on a HEQ5 mount (the minimum for astrophotography).

Setting up is a little involved, because I have to make at least five trips to the rooftop for the scope, the mount, the counterweights, the bag with eyepieces, power supply etc. and the chairs, before doing a polar alignment and setup. I budget approximately a hour for setting up, and half a hour for removing the equipment.

I *may* make a semi-permanent set-up, moving only the scope up and down (at the moment, I am usually going up every 3-4 weeks, for watching the moon, the planets and some double stars). Galaxies etc are only possible via a camera and lots of exposures and filtering, as far as I can understand (I have got a planetary camera for shooting the moon and the gas giants mostly).

If you want a minimum set-up, and Alt-Az manual mount for your scope might be a good idea (be careful to get a stiff enough tripod so your views aren't shaking much). Personally, I am for equatorial mounts, despite their costs and set-up requirements, because they let you just enjoy the view and do photography as well.

Another approach could be an automated system like the AstroFi - some people prefer automation instead of searching themselves the skies.

And there's always the binoculars approach.

N.F.

 

[Goldfinger]

Does heat effect sky viewing at night? Right now we're having 90 to 100  F degree  days and you can see the shimmering off the pavement, etc.

Just wondering.

Edited June 19, 2021 by Goldfinger

[Alan64]

8 hours ago, Goldfinger said:

Does heat effect sky viewing at night? Right now we're having 90 to 100  F degree  days and you can see the shimmering off the pavement, etc.

Just wondering.

Yes, indeed it does.  It's best to observe on and over a grass-covered area.  What happens during the day is that the Sun bombards the asphalt and concrete, then after the Sun sets the built-up heat is released from those surfaces.  The effect should lessen as the night wears on, then to start all over again the next day.