Telescope Reviews: 2 Weeks of Peace and Quiet

The internet makes a big difference on estimating cloud cover. My favorite site is the UCAR weather imagery site. It offers a terrific visible satellite loop applet. Even visible satellite is not 100% reliable, though. And I have been fooled more than once.

Our club has a terrific DSS. No cloud monitor yet, but that is probably already in the works. It has 32 electrical RV hookups, a dump station, restroom facilities, etc. I haven't done a drive home after observing trip in years. Since I'm not retired, that means any DSS trip is going to be on a weekend. When you limit those to cloud-free, new moon weekends, with no social commitments, the observing opportunities become vanishingly small. Maybe 6 trips a year in a good year. Urban astronomy can be done any clear night. That opens up a LOT of observing opportunities.

Of course, some of our club members go out constantly. Several times a month. Astronomy is pretty much all they think about when they're not at work, I guess. I love astronomy, but have many other interests as well so I have to balance that out. In addition, I have to admit, I like being at home. With my wife!

(Who thinks astronomy is okay but is not keen on bugs, cold weather, etc., etc.)

As far as the urban environment is concerned, I live in the city, with 4.5 mag skies on a good night. That is not as bad as it gets, I know, but it is plenty bad. It is amazing what can still be seen. I have a reasonably good situation for observing, now, but that was created by cutting down several very large trees in our backyard. (Supported by my wife because she also wanted a vegetable garden.) I lot can be done to improve the observing environment by a dedicated urban astronomer, but other issues just have to be endured or worked around. The big scope can never be set up in front of my house, on the southern exposure. It is simply a magnet for all sorts of people, some of whom you don't want to attract! That means I have to time many observations carefully for the period when an object is between the remaining trees on the East and West side of our backyard. Or, I can use a smaller scope that can be moved to the front yard after dark. Stuff like that. Smaller scopes have a lot of advantages for urban observers, not the least being they can easily be moved during an observing session.

Street lights can be a problem. We have one in front of our house (on the southern exposure). I am building a set of pvc and black plastic screens to block it when I want to observe in the front. A friend of mine has figured out how to turn off the light across from his driveway. Not sure how he does it. He has never gotten in trouble with Officer Friendly for the act, though that would worry me. I have heard of other people using laser pointers to irradiate the light sensor on the top of street lights to turn them off during an observing session. Screens seem a more reasonable approach.

I have sometimes wondered whether CloudyNights should have an Urban Observing forum, but the subject seems to be covered fairly well on the existing forums.

I do think a lot of people who might enjoy astronomy give up on it due to the logistics of DSS trips, being convinced by the general sentiment that observing from your backyard isn't worth the effort. Nothing could be further from the truth, if you ask me!

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Fiske Miles
Nikon 8x42 LX / 12x50 SE Binos
Mini Borg 60ED, TV-101, AT80Ach, XT-8, C11/CI-700, 22-Inch Dob
Way too many Nagler eyepieces
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