My cruddy viewing location from home...

[dpastern]

OK...here's the view from the back yard, looking towards the East:

http://www.macro-images.com/web/house/back_yard_east.jpg

As you can see, the backyard is very narrow, and being a double story house, if I set the scope up out the back, I can't view most of the South...you can see the trees in the East blocking views - they're worse than they look here, simply because I've used an ultra wide angle lens, which distorts things a bit.

Here's the view to the West (well, North West strictly speaking - I can't see the West due to the neighbours house in this piccie - either from the front or the back, I lose probably 10º from the horizon)...I took the piccie looking East from where the door of the Green shed is...

http://www.macro-images.com/web/house/back_yard_west.jpg

Here's a very rough pano of the front...you can see trees to the right (East), and the house to the left (North West/West):

http://www.macro-images.com/web/house/pano.jpg

You'll notice that the front yard (to the right of my Dad's car) is also narrow, and quite steep - not suitable for the scope imho. I usually set the scope up about halfway between the 2 bins on the left side of the image. It's the flattest area and gives the best views...

see what crappy location I have to work with?

Cheers,

Dave

[dpastern]

Oh, and where I set the scope up is on council property...I can move it around 5' or so back, along the White fence on the left, and then it's on my property, but then I'm sacrificing views to the East/ESE/SE, as well as even more of the West/NW/NWN views...

very frustrating.

out of the 3 places that we've lived, this is by far the worst from the Astronomy aspect. Light pollution in Ipswich is horrid - far worse than what it was like in Western Sydney.

The place that my parents had in Toowoomba would have been awesome (well, it was actually @ Wyreema) - heaps of room, even for a permanent observatory setup, good views all around, flat, and I could see to the horizon in all cardinal points...sadly, my parents sold that property to move where they are now...

Dave

[jjjnettie]

:sadeyes:
At least you have straight up to zenith. One of our members has to work off a verandah.

[dpastern]

I wonder if that guy lives in Ipswich? There's a house very close to the hospital grounds and there's a scope set up on the Verandah...looks like a 4" newtonian on a cg3 mount or similar...

Dave

[rogerg]

actually to be honest it looks like your conditions aren't that bad. Sure, they're not perfect by a long shot, but it looks like you do have a reasonable chunk of sky there.

Almost everyone has trade-off's for their location, be it poor horizons or light pollution or neighbour problems or travel distance/time or humidity problems or wind problems ..... it's just the way it is :)

For me it's high west horizon and high north horizon.

[styleman333]

Lol that looks fine , i live about 5 mins drive from wollongong steelworks .

[jjjnettie]

5 minutes from the steelworks??
You aren't in Cringella are you??

[RB]

LOL Davo, the only crap I see is on your sensor....time to get the Rocket Blower out mate. :lol:

Seriously though, the best imaging is done when you image quite high in the sky, avoid the lower elevations since you're going through much more atmospheric turbulence and LP.

:)

[dpastern]

Gee this makes me feel so much better...

Yeah Andrew, I've tried with the rocket blower...doesn't move the dust. You think that dust is bad, you should see the macro shots...far more dust bunnies than in those shots ;-)

yeah, my Southern view is good from a sky perspective, but...for...2 friggen street lights...neither shielded. To be honest, kills the Southern views...oh, and the palm tree...time to get the camera out again to show what I mean...

Dave

[Ian Robinson]

Well apart from obstructed horizons , I can't see a lot wrong with it.

Maybe you should take some night shots (2mins with as wide an lens as you have just set up on tripod) at night to show how "bad" it is.

At least your block looks flat .... I wish mine was

My N and NW are bad (high horison and light pollution from Charlestown Square (stacks of it) , luckily I'm in a light shadow caused by the hill ridge between me and Charlestown CBD else I'd be totally buggered.
My NW and W is obstructed by my house (essentially 2 storey high (but only because of my sloped land).
My SW is obstructed by neighbour's house (but at least he no longer leaves his outside porch (flood)light on 24/7 .... I sorted that problem with a nasty annominous letter threatening legal action).

My only low horizons are from SWish to SE.
I can't view from my front yard (got a street light right in front of my NW corner and it's very slopey in the yard , nor do I want to have every local nicker knowing I've got expensive gear
---- so I am limited to using the bit of foot path at the E side of my house (about 4ft wide) , the big of ground infront of my garage (viewing S, SW , W , NW and N) , or the old slab (came with the place when we bought it .... not flat , was an avarie ??) near the N fence (viewing W,NW,N,NE,E,SE,S,SW .... my likely site for my roll off roof shed (will need to get rid of the old slab) .

[En1gma]

I do my imaging from a verandah with views of zenith, east, west and north. To my nw I have Anz stadium which is mass light pollution when they have something on.

I reckon your view is not bad at all

[DavidU]

Dave, I would swap with you any day.

[dpastern]

Ian, the block, apart from the non council property where I set the scope up, is not flat. Anything from it. Has a 30º slope I reckon in the front. The back is far better, but the house just kills views...the block is very wide, but very shallow.

anyways, the palm tree...this looms over where I set the scope up...kills anything over in the West up to around 40º or so...

http://www.macro-images.com/web/house/palm_tree.jpg

then there's due South...2 killer street lights...yeah I know we all have to deal with it, doesn't mean I have to like it ;-)

http://www.macro-images.com/web/house/south.jpg

we ***** and complain about energy resources, yet as a species we (badly) justify having street lights on...sorry, but imho, they're not needed. I don't believe any argument about crime becoming higher if street lights went off. And there's still enough residential glow from house lighting so people can see where they're going. And anyone driving a car won't have any issues imho. They're simply not needed. They're an archaic architectural blemish that should have been banned a long time ago. They belong in the industrial ages as far as I'm concerned.

Ian - I'll try and set up the tripod/camera tonight with a 2 min exposure @ f2.8 on my Canon 20-35mm wide angle. It's pretty horrid ;-)

Dave

my main real gripe is the inability to set up a permanent observatory, even a small one...whilst I don't like the current surrounds, I know that there are worse off people than me on the forums. And having had 2 previous properties that were lights ahead (pun intended), it's even more frustrating...

[DavidU]

An Obs would be fantastic. All ruled out for me as we now rent.

[multiweb]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with your sky location. It's deep blue. Come over in Sydney right now and you will see clouds from horizons to horizons. :lol:

[dpastern]

hahaha!!! and you can keep your clouds :P I was gonna get the scope out last night, it was clear all day...as soon as nightfall approached, clouds came out of nowhere...I wasn't happy lol...

Dave

[rogerg]

I recently flew to Queensland via 2 hour stop-over in Sydney and having never been to Sydney before thought "oh cool, I get to see Sydney from the air, where all those IIS people live!" ... but it was raining, cloudy, windy.... I couldn't even work out the layout of the airport! ... so I believe you :)

[RB]

Next step I'd recommend is The Arctic Butterfly (especially for macro :lol:) !

[dpastern]

arctic butterfly? lemme in on the joke!

Dave

[Octane]

Arctic Butterfly is a sensor cleaning tool. 1ponders will tell you all about it.

Regards,
Humayun

[RB]

:lol:

Sorry about the bad pun Dave, I have a flippant sense of humour sometimes.

Check it out, I use it and so do a lot of others, good stuff !

http://www.visibledust.com/

:)

[TrevorW]

Perfect with a 2 story house I'd put a platform on the roof..

[dpastern]

Nah it's OK, I had a good laugh! I'm not game enough to try a sensor clean myself - with my luck, something would happen to the sensor and I'd be out of pocket a few grand...back to Canon it goes.

Dave

[dpastern]

I'd be tempted to do that...one day...my parents would never lit it happen...

Dave

[TrevorW]

Sell it too them as value adding, a giant skylight

[dpastern]

hehehe you're evil Trevor! I like it!!!

Dave

[Jen]

Oh bugger :doh:
Time to sell up Dave cant have this interfere with astronomy :D

[mithrandir]

I guess compared to Dave this isn't too bad. The centre of this 360 pano is south and I put my rig where the tripod was. The trees to the SW (bay and grevillia) top out at about 50 deg, the house about 20 deg, the trees to the N about 15 deg. The neighbor to the S leaves internal lights on all night. There are street lights to the SW, NW, N and NE.

And then there is the usual Sydney light pollution and clouds.

[dpastern]

Darn...that's really gotta suck Andrew. Why do people have to leave lights on all night?

Dave

[styleman333]

No No JJJ im on the other side , in mangerton . Great spot but a little close to the steelworks ...

[gbeal]

He will indeed, I heard he has shares in the company, liked them that much he bought it. LOL.
Gary