What's your situation? - Forums

I'm located in an extremely light polluted region in lower CT in the US. I have light pollution from all direction but least from the North. Last but not least I have neighbors with backyard LED door lights and flood lights that like to leave them on all night for apparently no reason. I guess I can thank them for helping me find narrowband imaging. lol

I live 10 miles outside of Philadelphia in town covered with streetlights. The Orion Skyglow Astrophotography Filter has been a lifesaver for me. I do most of my imaging from the roof of my tree-covered property, meaning I only have a sliver of sky to the north to work with (and not around Polaris, which I can only see through branches once the leaves have fallen). I'm a beginner, but I've still been able to get a few images I'm really happy with. One of the larger trees on my property has shed some pretty big branches lately, so I called a tree removal service yesterday in the hopes of getting it removed (along with some branches of another tree that also hinders my work). Unfortunately, it probably won't make too much of dent in my lack of sky: I live behind a park, which is better for the light pollution aspect, but there are tons of trees in there as well that I won't be able to get taken down.

My garden observatory (no dome) is located in the middle of Bavaria, 10km south of Regensburg, a midsize town of 150k people. 300m north to my home there's a car seller with kilowatts of LED lights to present the cars in the right illumination, the whole night

Around my property there are a lot of street lights, at least mainly Na pressure lamps. Last but not least, the airport Munich is only 80km to the south, so it's really a challenge. At the moment I've switched nearly completely to NB imaging as full spectrum / L exposures aren't possible anymore! But I don't give up! Besides NB imaging I use sometimes a light pollution filter from Astronomik which helps a little bit.

I'm 30 miles NE of Atlanta, GA with a few smaller towns right around me too. I'm in the middle of a subdivision with streetlights to the south and west. But that's where Atlanta is anyway so nuts to that direction. Luckily the neighbors don't have anything crazy with their lights going on. My best views are N and NE. Everything else is glowing or haze or what have you. I'm using a Hutech LPS filter and that helps some. I just started at the beginning of this year so my equipment is pretty standard "beginner" equipment with an SCT on an Alt/Az mount shooting with (now a modified!) DSLR. I can only get about 15sec max for each sub with my setup, but with all of the sky glow around, I'm not sure I could go much past 30sec anyway. My backyard is big and flat and the trees that are around aren't usually in the way of what I'm trying to get to, so I do have that going for me! Being in the Southeast US though, it is rare (especially in the summer) that there is a really good moonless night to get any really clear shots. But with cooler weather setting in (and me knowing what the hell I'm doing now), I'll have some more chances coming up.

Several of my images were captured from here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/content/images/de97e691de1e6ff84ed11dc31a23f5f3.jpg

Luckily I was able to eventually move one suburb further out from the city (Brisbane), but after a neighbour completed constructing townhouses adjacent to my little backyard, the view on the sky has become very limited, so I am planning to yet again find a more suitable location for astrophotography.

I'm in very near surburb of Paris… 3kms
The Eiffel Tower Light is just in south of my garden at 5kms.
"Happily my garden isn't lighted by street lights.

2months by year i'm also imaging with good sky at campaign in SW of France.

I have light pollution from San Diego 25 miles South. I can shoot North and over the ocean for 19.75 mag/arcsec2.

SGP calculates optimal exposure times for your light pollution and camera. A dew shield helps with the neighbors.

http://unihedron.com/projects/sqm-l/

I live in a small village in a rural location in the UK. Even here we have sodium steet lighting which can cause a certain level of sky glow. However, I have successfully campaigned for this to be switched off after midnight (50%) so that makes quite a difference. Unfortunately the main issue I have is the high moisture content in the air. How I envy those who live in dryer climes!

Where I live I am surrounded by oil refineries . Some to the South West some to the North East . My small city has grown in population about 70 % in 12 years . The major city Edmonton is 30 kms to the Southeast . We have snow on the ground for at least 5 months of the year so that makes it worse. One observation I have is that if the sky is transparent then astro imaging with filters (of course) is possible . Oh and yes why do these #### led streetlights need to be so bright when I go for a walk at night I need to wear sunglasses.

I live about a 10 min drive from the largest airport in the province in a part of the world where electricity is cheap and consequently light pollution is bad. But luckily my neighbour no longer leaves his lights on at night (after looking through my telescope). I've found through trial and error that I can image around 20 degrees east or west from the zenith and a bit further south. If I stick to brighter objects and forget about imaging galaxies I'm able to capture a lot of open and globular clusters as well as a few bright nebulae. I can also do some Ha with a clip filter on my DSLR. However the real advantage of imaging from my backyard is all the practical experience I've been able to pick up. You can't excel at anything if you don't practice!

I'm just a couple of miles North of you in Shelton Scott. New York, Bridgeport and New Haven light pollution is a constant irritation. North would be pretty dark if it weren't for the trees that surround me in the North and East.

We live just under 30 km away from Cologne (Germany) , a little outside a smaller town with lots of street lights. Light pollution is heavy,
and the view towards South and West is useless. North and East are sort of OK. We sometimes drive 80 km South where you find a less light-polluted sky, or then we pack our travel equipment and fly some place nice and dark..

I live in the inner city of Groningen, the Netherlands (population ~300k). And it's really the inner city, a 5 minute walk from the popular bars and restaurants. This is what my sky looks like (time lapse, moon rise) due to the nature of my skies I have to be somewhat creative about things. But I can't drive (yeah bit of a retard when it comes to that) so this will have to do for now :p

Hello friends, how are you? I live in the city of Pindamonhangaba (come again ?) , 150 km east from São Paulo, Brazil, ~160k pop, at a corner house with two BIG sodium lamps aimed right above my telescope. For example… none - or very tiny - Medusa Nebula features could be detect by my simple 450D modded and barely Antares region different emissions could be seen… I´ll try next winter Antares again (three nights of exposition I think), and sure the "fun guaranteed" objects like Lagoon, Trifid and Eagle Nebulas…I think the Bortle scale for me is 8. Nowadays Im very sad with all kind of astrophotography issues (light pollution, lack of gear, importation taxes, and so on)

…but I have to carry on unless till the end of 2017….

Bortle 7 backyard, mag per arc sec 18.0-18.5. Some trees, but they don't block much above 45 degrees elevation excpt North, and I wouldn't want to image there anyway. Have pretty much arranged things to block my neighbors security lights.

These days I'm dong some HaRGB, kind of a compromise. Narrowband-ish detail with natural-ish color. It was hard to figure out processing at first (the dreaded salmon color), but I'm getting there.

I find people who say you can't image from those skies annoying.

I live on the Denver, CO metro area so a lot of light pollution and my neighbor that backs up to me has a flood light that is almost always on. On the plus side, the Denver Astronomical Society has a dark site about an hour east from me that I can go to that is really nice.

I find people who say you can't image from those skies annoying.

Thanks for saying that. I was really back and forth yesterday - I saw an amazing image on Facebook with M64, IFN, among other things and asked the imager about his acquisition. The first thing he said was "L: 54 x 15 min." All I could do was laugh. A 15 minute L exposure at 0 gain would just come out white where I live and I realized I'd never be able to recreate that image or do anything like that unless I moved. Later on yesterday, I saw a version of the Elephant's Trunk nebula imaged in narrowband from an apartment window in the center of Berlin that was equally amazing. It reminded me that although we have to make adjustments (e.g., just forget about reflection nebulae, for example), we can still image. We can still create amazing pictures if we focus on the right subjects and use the right filters.

It would take me 2-4 hours to drive to a real dark site, so I'll keep at it from my roof outside of Philly.

I image from very badly light polluted central Toronto (pop 5 million), Bortle 8-9, NELM of 3.5. Visual astronomy is largely not practical. My observing "site" is my 9th floor NW facing balcony. Because of the steep light pollution gradient, the balcony above me, and my fixed balcony view I'm confined to imaging 40-70 degrees EL and 230-330 AZ. This represents just 15% of the sky. I keep my FOV small so as to reduce light pollution (typically 19'x25' but soon that will become 9'x12'

. Finding targets is a challenge so I must Plate Solve to figure out where I am. Because of multiple direct lights, including a neighbors flashing string of very bright LEDs I also use a dew-shield. Combined with a cold and often cloudy or hazy environment, astronomy is a serious challenge for me. However, I have the advantage of being just 2m from my warm living room, have installed power, and have a very secure permanent site (no strangers, police or animals can intrude all of which have happened to me from "ground" sites). I leave the telescope, and most of its support equipment, on the balcony in its observing location 24/7 with a cover over it when it's not in use. I also run control and signal cables indoors. The cables allow me to display the CCD's images on my indoor laptop and to control the camera settings and telescope position. I don't yet employ any optical filters. As a result I can "see" 16th magnitude on the monitor and when processed can typically image 18-19 mag with my best so far as 19.4 mag. I expect to soon be able to exceed 20th mag as I reduce my FOV. Overall I think that's pretty good for my very challenging imaging site. It's very important to utilize what one has.

I live across the Hudson from NYC. In the white zone. Yep, the worst. Did some narrowband imaging with Hyperstar 11" - it's OK, but wanted to do more. Besides, there's not much sky - West is the Palisades, South - the buildings and trees. You get the picture. Sooo… I convinced my wife to get a country house 2 hours away. it is not ideal and not free BUT! I'm in Green Zone with a Garden observatory controlled from inside the house. SQM is 20+. There's still some light pollution to the South but I can live with that. My biggest problem - I can't get there often enough. Remote imaging is a remote possibility though

One of these days - if there's a better internet… ;)

UPDATE 05-26-2023
I'm now using the country house observatory much more often. The internet there is now Broadband Spectrum and the Observatory itself is controlled remotely. A few times I had problems I couldn't fix from my main house remotely and had to jump in the car and drive there - 2 hours. But otherwise, relatively smooth sailing.

I live in the country amidst fields. Have a little light pollution from our house although I set up 1/4 mile away up our driveway. Nearest neighbor is 2 miles to the east past a pine/mixed hardwoods swamp. In the west is our closest town (about 900 people) and that is two miles away past another swamp. Closest big city is Wilmington which is 60 miles east. There are a couple of small towns 10 to 15 miles away. So it is a pretty good location. On the whole, I really can't complain.

I live about 13 miles north of downtown Los Angeles just inside the White Zone. I used to be outside the White in a Red Zone 3 years ago, but the widespread installation of LED street lighting is making things much worse. My SQM is now typically around 18.0 to 18.3 at the zenith, but pointing south toward LA anywhere lower than 50-degrees will net a reading of around 15! Its darker in my living room!!!

To my north I have a sodium streetlight just off to the right of the end of my driveway, which I block by setting up in the shadow of my front neighbor's house.
On the next street uphill from me I have a large car dealership with its lot tower lights, a Post Office loading dock with 6 unshielded and very bright fluorescent lights. The street itself is now lined with full-spectrum LED streetlights as of last Fall.

All around me are taller houses with security lights, patio lighting, plat spotlights and other annoying and useless outdoor lighting.

Its getting worse and worse with each passing year…

Somehow I still manage to shoot 5nm Ha and occasionally 5nm SII from my driveway… LRGB is out of the question as the CCD is swamped in a few seconds. Since the spread of LED street lights, shooting OIII from home is now all but impossible as well.

In the winter the heat plumes and chimneys from my neighbors home's make shooting from my driveway even more challenging. Focus is very difficult and seeing is very poor. I usually head for the desert in the winter, and in the summer I head to the mountains. Those areas, while only 1.5 to 2 hours away are around an SQM reading of 20 to 21.

Of course my wife and I are always on the lookout for a place to move, but LA is very very crowded these days and its hard to find affordable housing.

I do the best I can.

Olá amigos, como estão? Eu moro na cidade de Pindamonhangaba, 150 km a leste de São Paulo, Brasil, ~ 160k pop, em uma casa de canto com duas lâmpadas de sódio BIG apontadas bem acima do meu telescópio. Por exemplo ... nenhuma - ou muito pequena - Medusa Nebula características poderiam ser detectadas pelo meu 450D simples modded e apenas Antares região emissões diferentes poderiam ser vistos ... Eu vou tentar próximo inverno Antares novamente (três noites de exposição, eu acho) , E com certeza o "divertimento garantido" objetos como Lagoa, Trifid e Eagle Nebulas ... Acho que a escala de Bortle para mim é 8. Hoje em dia Im muito triste com todos os tipos de questões astrofotografia (poluição luminosa, falta de artes, impostos de importação, E assim por diante): (... mas eu tenho que continuar a menos que até o final de 2017 ....

Hello'daniel!
I live in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, you can already imagine what kind of light pollution has here

the star brightness is very low I'm disheartened with seeing currently and in my case I make planetary images. Something very sad indeed my friend ...

" Hello'daniel!
I live in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, you can already imagine what kind of light pollution has here

the star brightness is very low I'm disheartened with seeing currently and in my case I make planetary images. Something very sad indeed my friend …

"

Thanks for your very kind message good friend Newton! We sure deserves a lot more better dark skies conditions…My best regards! :-)

Chris Sullivan:
I find people who say you can't image from those skies annoying.
Thanks for saying that. I was really back and forth yesterday - I saw an amazing image on Facebook with M64, IFN, among other things and asked the imager about his acquisition. The first thing he said was "L: 54 x 15 min." All I could do was laugh. A 15 minute L exposure at 0 gain would just come out white where I live and I realized I'd never be able to recreate that image or do anything like that unless I moved. Later on yesterday, I saw a version of the Elephant's Trunk nebula imaged in narrowband from an apartment window in the center of Berlin that was equally amazing. It reminded me that although we have to make adjustments (e.g., just forget about reflection nebulae, for example), we can still image. We can still create amazing pictures if we focus on the right subjects and use the right filters.

It would take me 2-4 hours to drive to a real dark site, so I'll keep at it from my roof outside of Philly.

You said you lived ten minutes outside of Philly. That covers a WHOLE lot of space. Are you in New Jersey, Bucks County, Montgomery County, Delaware County, or . . .?

When I bought my first telescope, I was north of King of Prussia, but I found that even a 5" Mak Cass would do very well if you set up in Valley Forge National Park, even with the people who were still out there at 10 or 11 at night. Of course, this was back in the mid-90's, so I don't know if the park sill allows that sort of thing. But, if you look hard enough, you CAN find some pretty nice dark spots (relatively speaking) are the Philly Metro area!

I've long since moved to the West Coast, and now I just deal with rain for nine months out of the year. I need COMFORT. Send me some Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets, please!

8) 8)

I live 40 km off the center of Athens (5 million pop) in Greece. Fortunately on my South SouthEast are only a few houses and the sea, thus light pollution there is not very annoying, but trying to shoot anything at the Northern Sky is a problem in both Guiding and Frame Shooting.

Thus I try mostly to choose targets that are not travelling to the North as much as possible