Dealing with obstructed view

[Solanum]

I recently moved to new place, while was just what we wanted except for one thing, I have a shockingly restricted view of the sky. I had the scope out the other night and estimated it to be about 20 deg by 45 deg and it is straight up, so right in Dobson's hole (so to speak!).

We're (hopefully) in this house for the long haul now, so does anyone have tips for coping with this sort of view. The obvious ones are to take the scope elsewhere for viewing (not very practical as it's a big scope, plus I have a young family, so can't disappear for hours on end in the evening - I could get a smaller more movable scope but don't have the cash after buying the house!), or meticulous planning for an evenings viewing (specific to a given evening and likely to be thrown out by mixed weather I guess). I do have an Argo Navis which should help with the latter.

Any tips?

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

What's the situation on your roof can you work out some sort of setup on your roof that would give you a less restricted view of the sky it would probably have to be a permanent setup.

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

Originally Posted by supernova1965

What's the situation on your roof can you work out some sort of setup on your roof that would give you a less restricted view of the sky it would probably have to be a permanent setup.

I was thinking the same thing, DIY attic conversion, take you time and make sure you can get shire approval for that kind of mod. If I wasn't renting I would do the same as I have fairly resticted views as well. The house I am in is sunken compared to our neighbours and when the pool has been setup I loose all obs locations to take my scope out. Don't want to set up in the front yard as there is a street light out the front.

I though do enjoy trips out, my children are not that young now 14 and 11 so I have the upper hand, My 14yo has Senior First Aid certificate so I feel very comfortable for him to look after my high allergy 11yo if both myself and my wife go out.

[Solanum]

Originally Posted by supernova1965

What's the situation on your roof can you work out some sort of setup on your roof that would give you a less restricted view of the sky it would probably have to be a permanent setup.

In the long run, that is exactly my aim, to put a roof over the deck at the back and a door out from the attic. However, the back of the hosue is already two stories (one at the front - on a slope) and Onkaparinga council aren't exactly kind to multi-storey developments. At the moment it's too expensive as well!

I know there is no actual answer, but other people must have the same problem and I wondered if they have any smart work-arounds I haven't thought of!

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

Originally Posted by Solanum

I know there is no actual answer, but other people must have the same problem and I wondered if they have any smart work-arounds I haven't thought of!

It may sound a bit extreme but a platofrm with lifting so it can be lift when observing. It could be part of the ground feature then scope items can be loaded on the platform and lifted up above or at the same level as the first floor. Would be hell of a build though.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by mswhin63

It may sound a bit extreme but a platofrm with lifting so it can be lift when observing. It could be part of the ground feature then scope items can be loaded on the platform and lifted up above or at the same level as the first floor. Would be hell of a build though.

Hey that's thinking out of the square I want one of those. Hey my landlord has one of those small cherry pickers I wonder if he leaves the keys in it? and he stores it near our house

[Starkler (Geoff)]

You could always look on the bright side. In winter when most plants have shed their leaves I can see no less than 11 different street lights from my backyard.

[mozzie (Peter)]

yer its difficult im surrounded by trees you get use to it and i plan a bit when things are best in the sky for my viewing conditions
mozzie

[DavidU (Dave)]

I have a similar problem with FOV in the back yard, I have resorted to wheeling the scope out into the street !
What's your front yard like?

[Davros (Lauren)]

Maybe some sort of wooden platform in the back yard a meter or so off the ground.

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

Originally Posted by Davros

Maybe some sort of wooden platform in the back yard a meter or so off the ground.

That sounds like a good idea, I might look at a temporary one myself as my FOV is quite poor as well and the swimming pool is up too.

[Marke (Mark)]

I snuck out with a ladder and cut the tops off all the trees
Hey they grow back dont they

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by Marke

I snuck out with a ladder and cut the tops off all the trees
Hey they grow back dont they

The ones that matter here all need about 5 metres off (don't have a long enough ladder), or too dense to get a ladder into (slope is too steep to get in a cherry picker), or in the neighbor's property (none of whom are astronomers). The local council's fines for excessive pruning are over the top.

And I don't have enough life/permanent disability insurance.

Putting a platform on the roof seems the most practical.

Here budget manager. Nice budget manager. ...

Andrew

[Solanum]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

The ones that matter here all need about 5 metres off (don't have a long enough ladder), or too dense to get a ladder into (slope is too steep to get in a cherry picker), or in the neighbor's property (none of whom are astronomers). The local council's fines for excessive pruning are over the top.

And I don't have enough life/permanent disability insurance.

Putting a platform on the roof seems the most practical.

Here budget manager. Nice budget manager. ...

Andrew

Likewise, if I could afford the fines for cutting down the trees on my own and three neighbouring properties I could afford to get that platform on the roof of the deck built!

I've taken photographs of the 'sky' area and plan on using them in Stellarium (when I work out how to do it), to aid me in planning what I cans ee and when.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by Solanum

I've taken photographs of the 'sky' area and plan on using them in Stellarium (when I work out how to do it), to aid me in planning what I cans ee and when.

I posted the mosaic I use in Stellarium a while back. The process goes like this. Barry might like to comment on my method.

Turn your photos into a mosaic. Make the sky transparent. It's simplest if your photos were taken with a clear blue sky.

I scale to a final width of 2048 and then crop the height to 512. That works well - big enough to look OK, small enough to not take too long to render. Cut it into 4 frames 512x512.

In %APPDATA%\Stellarium (or ~/.stellarium/) create a landscapes directory. In that create another directory - I call mine Home.
Copy your images into there.
Copy the landscape.ini file from %ProgramFiles%\Stellarium\landscape s\garching (*nix users I have no idea where yours is installed - mine is under /opt/stellarium) into your directory. (I chose garching because it is set up for 4 frames.)

The format of the landscape.ini file is not well documented.
Change the name and author to suit.
Change the filenames in the tex* lines to be yours.

(If you supply the raw photos, I'm happy to get you to this point if you find my explanation too hard to follow.)

Then you get to fiddle with the decor* lines to get the orientation and the height right.

Andrew

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

Here budget manager. Nice budget manager. ...

Is that what you call her or him! circle most applicable option you can be too Politically Correct these days no offense intended

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by supernova1965

Is that what you call her or him! circle most applicable option you can be too Politically Correct these days no offense intended

How do you circle text in a message? Best I can come up with is:

[southerncross (Jeff)]

what about a second hand set of stair's? set them up in your backyard with a platform off the end. what's your roof cavity like? Could you maybe put a retractable cover over part of your roof and setup inside the roof cavity?
Just throwing a few thoughts around.

[gary]

Originally Posted by Solanum

I recently moved to new place, while was just what we wanted except for one thing, I have a shockingly restricted view of the sky.

....

I do have an Argo Navis which should help with the latter.

Any tips?

Hi Everard,

Happy New Year.

With regards your Argo Navis and your restricted views of the sky, here
are a couple of tips that might be of benefit.

Firstly, Argo Navis allows you to align on any object, even as the initial
alignment object. For example, if one can see, say, Jupiter, through the
limited observing hole, dial up MODE CATALOG, PLANETS/SUN and dial
up JUPITER. Press EXIT. DIAL up MODE ALIGN. Press ENTER. Argo
Navis will prompt with ALIGN JUPITER. Center Jupiter in eyepiece and press
ENTER. As another example, one can dial up a star by name from the BRIGHT
STAR catalog and then use it in conjunction with MODE ALIGN.

Once aligned, you could then use the "WITHIN ... ARC" selection in the
MODE IDENTIFY and MODE TOUR menus.

For example, point the scope to the middle of the "hole" then dial up
MODE TOUR, NON STELLAR, MAG 11, ANY CONSTEL, WITHIN 20 ARC
will tour non-stellar objects that are within a radius of 20 degrees of the starting
point and that have a magnitude of 11 or greater.

Take comfort in the thought that the Earl of Rosse's 72 inch reflector was the
largest telescope in the world from 1845 until 1917 but it could only move a very
limited amount in azimuth. That meant that observers essentially had to wait
for objects to pass overhead, yet Dreyer managed to compile a sizable
chunk of the NGC catalogue using it.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Phone +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au

[Solanum]

Here's a pic of the back of my house. So the long term plan would be to see if the council would let me remodel the deck and put a platform on top of it, accessible from the attic, from where I would observe. However, that is currently a pipe dream.

My current observing positions, are either on the back paved area where the kids are playing, from where I can see none of the east sky but a fair bit of the west through the trees behind the point where the picture is taken from (and they are worse than the others you can see around the house). The other alternative is down where the trampoline is (and a pain to get the scope there), where I see a bit of the east, but less of the west.

Thanks for the tips Gary, actually that is exactly what I did the other night (aligned on Jupiter, then on what I thought was Achenar but turned out to be Sirius - as I discovered when I went round to the front of the house to check), then did the tour within 20 deg, but I got a bit fed up of skipping past variable stars (don't mind binaries, but only so many in a night). I have missed/forgotten about the non-stellar option. So thanks for that, will make using the tour much more interesting!

As a plus, the light pollution is not as bad as my previous place in Blackwood (only a few km away) so I can at least see the Magallenic clouds well, except of course it is worst to the north-west which is pretty much my clearest view...