Re: The first night out with my 10" dob.

From: Ken Tullis (me_at_privacy.net)
Date: 09/05/04 

Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2004 03:14:04 GMT

On 4-Sep-2004, "Tom" <tom@wallyworld.net> wrote:

> Location: north Scottsdale.

That's your biggest problem - lots of light pollution!

> People say that M31 is visible with the naked
> eye, which could suggest that light pollution in north Scottsdale is worse
> than I think.

It's easily visible naked eye but only from a dark location.

Stick to objects with high surface brightness in areas like yours. Save the
galaxies and nebula for dark sky locations.

Check out www.eastvalleyastronomy.org - when I was a member of the East Valley
Astronomy Club a few years ago they met at Scottsdale Community College and had
a very dark observing location south of I-8. I think you'll enjoy them.

Another very good club in Phoenix is the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) but they
meet on the west side of town (Grand Canyon University I believe) and their
observing site is also west of town. I went to few of their meetings and liked
them but at the time I lived in Chandler and it was too long of a commute to
their meetings.

If you're not into the club thing try camping out someplace dark around new moon
(McDowell Mountain Regional Park north of Fountain Hills has a nice campground
and the skies are quite dark in the east and north). 

-- 
Regards,
Ken
My real email address is:  KenTullis at escapees dot com

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