Filter options as I move house

[djdurance]

I recently moved house and my backyard is DIRECTLY under a yellow sodium street light. Just horrible. Anyway, I have an unmodified Canon 650 that I use with a 72/420 scope and am planning on purchasing at Samyang 135 this weekend. Thoughts on the best filter for this yellow sodium nightmare??? I'd like this to be a clip for the camera so I can use is with the camera lens and the scope. Just really getting going so shooting the big targets including galaxies and nebula. 

[djdurance]

I ended up pulling the he trigger in an astro modified canon DSLR yesterday so this might change things??!

 

Btw, here is a picture... Backyard is right under this!

[ollypenrice]

Can't help on the filter but I wonder what the neighbours think about that light. It's absurdly high and seems to shine straight into a lot of bedroom windows. Might it be possible to get together and approach the local authority?

Olly

[gorann]

At least it is a sodium light that have a very narrow band width that should be taken out with light pollution filters and there are probably specific filters for sodium. If they change it do broadband LED (which they may very well do soner than later to save energy) there is no way to filter it away as far as I uderstand.

Edited November 8, 2021 by MartinB
Inappropriate content removed

[Seelive]

I assume it's a low pressure sodium lamp which are easily 'suppressed' by any of the standard light pollution filters although if you are only troubled by LP sodium lamps they will also unnecessarily take out a lot of the other spectrum. Many years ago (when all street lighting was LP sodium) I used a filter that just removed the twin D lines but I'm not sure if you can get anything that simple the days!

But I wonder if a single lamp will cause that much of a problem? I have a roadside LED lamp 10m away that illuminates my garden but it's the light pollution from the local town and large industrial estate that causes the light pollution. I've tried LP filters in the past and just don't like trying to deal with the resulting colour balance. Nowadays I just take more subs so that I have the chance of extracting the faint detail from the background noise caused by the light pollution (OK, the image dynamic range is reduced but I can cope with saturated stars as long as I can get the fuzzy stuff).

[caumargu]

I've been where you are, and I know what you're talking about, man. It's horrible. If you need help with that, I can advise you on the way out that was helpful to me. I'm referring now to Belize real estate, which has several options from which you can choose one of the most comfortable for you. I took a long time to choose and finally was able to make my choice towards a fantastic two-story house with a small backyard. I found this resource to be beneficial, so I'm sure you'll find it to be a practical choice as well.

Edited November 8, 2021 by caumargu

[newbie alert]

On 05/09/2021 at 14:12, gorann said:

At least it is a sodium light that have a very narrow band width that should be taken out with light pollution filters and there are probably specific filters for sodium. If they change it do broadband LED (which they may very well do soner than later to save energy) there is no way to filter it away as far as I uderstand. Then it may be time to get an air gun👺

I'm sure that they will change them to led's..  you can insist that they put a cap on it to cone the light source downwards ( the led will be much brighter than sodium) just say it keeps you awake at night 

But the air gun sounds a fantastic idea to eliminate it totally 

[adyj1]

The most effective filter of all will cost about a fiver from ebay - search for "8mm A/F Security Hex Key". As I understand it, behind the cover is often just a normal single-fuse MCB, like you might have in a garage. 

However, I've only seen this used effectively when the light in question is less obviously located - and I imagine you would have to have sympathetic neighbours who know not to report it as broken when it stops working every cloudless night... 

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by adyj1

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Definitely contact the council, that light must shine onto so many bedroom windows it's a prime candidate for shrouding.

If that doesn't adequately reduce the light intrusion into your garden, you could try fashioning some kind of retractable shield from plywood or something?