Evil in our midst...

[Uranium235]

Damn....

Just woke up this mornning to find that the new housing estate thats at the bottom of my garden has just put in some street lights

Jeez... its going to light the place up like a battlefield!

Suppose id better get cracking on building a obsy and getting a CCD CLS filter. Not a happy bunny!

[Whippy]

Welcome to my world . Over the last couple of years they've been building a new housing estate to the east of me (which was my least light polluted part of sky) which they claim will end up with 1250 houses. Add the upgraded station car park and it's now almost a waste of time doing RGB as it just plays havoc with the colour balance.

God bless narrowband!

Tony..

[shaunster]

Better hope its not those new super bright white ones as a normal LP filter doesnt work with them and on a moist night they light up the sky real bad!!

[Odd Thomas]

Join the club! I've got one to the side of my garden, even worse the gardens around 15 feet lower than the light so to screen it would mean blocking off half the sky!

[Chris Stacey]

I can sympathise.....I have a farm land at the bottom of my garden, so i'm lucky in that regard, but the first field directly behind my house is owned by a building company who rent it back out the farmer...they've tried getting permission to build on it before and failed.....but they got permission to put some houses in the field to the west of it, only 8 houses but it's a start, and once a trend has been set it's normally easier to get others put up.

I really like where i'm living and plan on staying here until they cart me out in a box....so me and the wife have decided to offer to buy it off them, and we'll offer over the going rate too.......I don't think we've got any chance at all of getting it, but we gotta try....

[Demonperformer]

Thomas

If it is just one, can't you set up a screen that only covers that part of the horizon, that way you will still be able to get to lower altitudes over the rest of the sky. I find it incredible, that when I look at the sky above one of my local streetlights, if I just put a hand up between the light and my eyes the sky immediately becomes darker and more stars visible.

Small screens to the lowest possible height while still obscuring the light is the way to go, I think.

Now, where did I put those old bin liners??

[drmillrace]

I can see four streetlights within 30m of my house and one very bright security light array on a local car park. I built a 2m high 3 sided screen to go on the end of my shed using plumbing waste pipe and cheap tarpaulin. The difference it makes is amazing. Just can't use it when it's windy

[phallam]

I sympathise as well. I have a lovely tall, bright orange street light at the bottom of my garden. I wouldn't mind so much if there was a street there for it to illuminate... Maybe I should erect a strategically placed flagpole with a nice big flag to celebrate the royal wedding?

[Uranium235]

The only saving grace is that they havent put a bulb it it yet. And its a tall one, if the bulb is the same as the ones they put in the others its going to be an orange/white type light. Looking grim.

However, I do have a pile of bricks that I dug up out of the garden last week just lying there

I guess for now I will go with what DP said and set up some screening that I can mount on my existing fence posts. Will need to make the mount legs shorter too so the ota stays in the dark... not too short though since polaris is only just above my house as it is. And if I cant see polaris I would be well scuppered.

[Ad Astra]

We all sympathize with you, friend. Almost all of us have battled this for years. My wife and I have been working on landscaping our front patio / observing area to help screen out street light. The neighbors have planted a tree in their yard that blocks off one light, and we are planting bamboo (in planters) to make a selective screen for the second light down the street. The bamboo grows well and can easily be shaped / pruned into a selective, light blocking hedge.

Second, if you have an open tube scope, make a shroud to keep out excess light. If you have a closed tube - make a dew/light shield, and an extensive one of at least 10-12 inches if you can. Keeping excess light out is half the battle. If you really want to get agressive, you can install a field stop in your focuser and flock the interior of your tube.

Third, you can make yourself a personal light shield, or 'Monk's Hood'. I have seen vests with oversize hoods designed to be put over your head when at the eyepiece to block stray light from your eye. I should think that a dark colored bath towel would work as well in a pinch!

I know it's nothing so satisfying as perhaps seeing an small asteroid strike (or maybe a trash truck?) take out the offending light, but these measures really will give you a tremendous improvement over your situation. The telescope works fine, really - the trick is to keep all the stray light out of the tube, and then out of your eye.

I hope that helps,

Dan

[Uranium235]

Thanks Dan, ive already got an extra-long dew shield (blackened on the inside) for the ED80 which is ultra-light. It does a good job of blocking stray light and keeping dew at bay.

But my secondary concern is light leakage into the filter wheel, since its an "open bottom" type any bright(ish) light will cause a gradient. Actually, the glow from the plastic storage box (which contains the netbook, power points and anything else i need to keep dry) was enough to cause a gradient with that FW. I sorted that one out with a carpet tile though

Anyways, I picked up a bunch of bamboo canes on the way home so I can start work on putting together a light-break.