Steve,
Battling light pollution is the bane of all urban atronomers but big improvements can be made.
A few simple tricks to try at Meadowbank Park:
- Fit a dew/light shield on the front of your scope to keep the off axis light off your objective lense. This can be simply made out of an old manilla folder to start with and need only be about 100-150mm long.
- Wear an eyepatch over your observing eye to preserve dark adaption. This is the main problem with light pollution, your eyes never gain that dark adaption needed to see really faint objects.
- Make a viewing hood that goes over your head and eyepiece when you are actually viewing. Get under this then take off your eyepatch, observe then put your eyepatch on before coming out again.
Then comes the other plug for an astro society
WSAAG. Linden should be close to your chosen limits for an observing trip. I can make it from Woodford to Pymble in about an hour with the motorways now.
Cheers