Re: The Aging Amateur Astronomer
- From: Len Philpot <len@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 10:11:27 -0600
RMOLLISE said the following on 2/25/2006 9:24 AM:
Why let this stop you? I've probably seen a lot more from the center of
Mobile than you have from your much better location. The secret? Shield
the scope and yourself from _ambient_ light...all those nearby
porchlights and lighted windows. An observatory or just some portable
light shields and you'll be back in deep sky heaven.
I know, I know... :-)
True - I've put up tarps to block the light and moved into a tiny nook of my patio between the house and storage building, but then I only have about a 40 deg patch of sky directly overhead, and it's over the (heat emitting) roof. Even then, I can't block all the light. Pineville, LA (where I live) is only about 15,000, but it's next to a city of 50,000 and a metropolitan area in general of about 160,000. Not exactly NYC but still light-emitting nonetheless, to say the least.
As much as anything, I guess I've developed a habit of looking at return vs. effort, and it's pretty easy to decide it's not worth it when I'm already tired from work, have other things to do, etc., etc. At star parties, I'll go hours and hours looking for faint fuzzies, but here at home they're just not really visible. Sure, there are Messiers and NGCs, etc., but anything past about 12.5m gets pretty doggone dim from my backyard. Over the past few TSPs, I've gotten very intrigued with Larry Mitchell's lists and the kinds of things they feature. Many are not even visible in my scopes, but it's fun to try nonetheless.
I guess it's kind of like being a race car driver and realizing your car is governored down to only reach X speed, no matter how hard you push the gas pedal... You start "pinin' for the fjords" (can you tell I watched MP last Wednesday on PBS?)
As everyone knows, it's very disheartening to spend time setting up the scope, drift aligning the platform, etc., etc., only to have some yahoo turn on his porch light and leave it on past midnight, night after night. The way my yard is situated, I'm affected by any of 8 to 10 sets of lights depending on where I setup and where I look. At least I'm in the good company of thousands of other observers who face the same thing.
This year/season seems to have been one of the cloudiest/rainiest I can recall in a while. Not always rain, but LOTS of clouds where I live. I was looking at some stats on the web and since the end of Oct, /well/ over half of the days have been cloudy and/or raining. Add to that moon phase, oncall schedules and the all the rest of those things that go to make up a life and, well ... :-)
At any rate, that's why I'm looking forward to TSP so much, and even to the Kisatchie Star Party next weekend (although the weather isn't encouraging at all so far for KSP). Of course, there's one upside (I guess) to all this cloudy weather - When it /does/ clear, I'm less likely to be dissuaded from observing by local lights!
--
---- Len Philpot -------- len@xxxxxxxxxxx
------- ><> ------------- http://members.cox.net/lenphilpot/
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