[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Another option although a bit farther than 1 hour would be to got to one of the Central Coast get together (nearish Gosford) at either Paintball or Pony Club. There will be posts in another thread when a night "is on" (in Star Parties and Observing Nights section).

The NSAS (Northern Sydney Astronomical Society) were doing observing at the Turramurra Golf Course on some weekend evenings...you can check out their website for the details there.

With respect to Light Pollution Filters let me say first up that there is no "magic bullet" and nothing will ever replace a dark site. (full stop)

Having said that, there are a couple of ways to attack the problem...

Flocking the inside of your scope will help add contrast, as will building/buying a dew shield/light shield. There are some commercially available ones or you can make your own pretty easily from things like camping mats to stiff plastic.

Light pollution filters...

There are a couple of different types...

There are filters targeted to the light from sodium/mecury street lights...they do reduce the impact and can improve the view a bit...I have the Astronomics CLS...it is okay but pretty broad in its filtering.

The next step would be a narrow pass band filter (UHC)...there are several different ones available I have the DGM Optics NPB (narrow pass band) but have also owned the Astronomics UHC. There are some differences but they will generally all imrpove the view.

One of the really difficult problems with light pollution (in my mind at least equal to the impact of the light on the scope) is the stray light not allowing your eyes to ever really dark sky adapt...Some people use eyepatches or I've even heard red goggles...

Again, all of these things will help but getting out to darkness is very much better than these other solutions...

Clear Dark Skies...