Serious Home Observatories

peatbakke writes: "Here's an interesting article about the affordability of backyard observatories. Rich kids get all the fun at the moment, but it's getting better." Getting away from city lights may be the hardest part, though.

Comments

Ar alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

you could use a program like Celestia and look into the heavens from your own computer monitor.

KStars

[Klerck]

If you want to see the stars without using a telescope, KStars is an excellent program. It's simply an amazing piece of work.

You can do stuff like click on a star to get a real picture of it from various sources.

It's, of course, free and open source.

For any potential telescope buyer..

[BuR4N]

Here is a two great sites filled with reviews and tips on astro. grear.

http://www.cloudynights.com/
http://www.scopere views.com/

Low-cost alternatives

[mike449]

You don't need $150,000 investment to enjoy the night skies. Begin with naked-eye or binoculars (10x50 allow seeing many deep-sky objects). Next step is a simple telescope - 8" Dobsonian reflector costs under $400. Even computerized "go-to" telescopes are mostly under $2000, except high-end models.

Light pollution is a big problem in cities. You may have to drive quite a bit to see the Milky Way.
Join your local amateur astronomy group (even if you don't have an instrument), these guys are generally very helpful and usually have access to some dark and safe observing sites.

A topic that many /.ers like - hacking cheap CCD webcams to get long exposure times. This allows to take really great astro pictures even within light-polluted cities. Good place to start is QCUIAG Yahoo group.

Re:Low-cost alternatives

[drg55]

Although I wouldn't mind a computer controlled setup with ccd, I think many people who buy the 8" computer driven models would not use them as 1) it is not really good enough aperture, you want 10" or more
2) you need to do the hardyards and learn the night sky. For me finding an object takes around 20-30 minutes. I then get the satisfaction and knowledge that I found it. Once you do have a grounding in the sky then it has uses obviously for advanced amertures who are basically doing professional standard work.
And yes light pollution is a problem as any one who has been looking at the sky will tell you.

This is a result of poorly designed public lighting which shines a large percentage into the sky making it glow brighter than many faint objects. Also the lighting is usually unshielded so that the light source causes the pupil to contract. Answer, even brighter lights. The only real reason for this is utility companies want to keep their generators going at night - and the public pays. It is a serious cultural issue and a greenhouse gas source.
David.

Observatory on the web

[mikewas]

The Bradford Robotic Telescope is a web enabled telescope in West Yorkshire, England. It's open to anyone (registration required). You submit a request for an observation, the request is queued, and the telescope automatically makes the observation when conditions are favorable. You get an email informing you that your image is available.

If you're into immediate gratification, the most recent 500 observations are also available. The Yorkshire weather isn't always cooperative, so it might be a while before you get your image.

It's not the same as putting your eye to the lens, but I don't have room for a 46cm telescope, and viewing conditions are far from ideal anywhere in New Jersey!

Re:light pollution

[randmairs]

Whenever I go outside to observe in my suburban light polluted neighborhood, there is a pesky street light. With my neighbor's permission, I shine a laser pointer ($16 - from my local mega office supply store) at the photo diode switch located as a knob on top of the lamp. I use a tripod, cloths pin, and some tape/rubber bands to hold the pointer in place. The photodiode holes are ususally oriented toward the west.

There are people working to try to limit obnoxious outdoor lighting. They are the folks and associates of the International Dark Sky Association at http://www.darksky.org

The Astronomy Centre (UK)

[alanw]

We are a bunch of dedicated amateurs, building our own 42" (1.07 metre) telescope.

We already have a 30 foot dome, a 30" Dobsonian, 12" reflecting binoculars, and more.

http://www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

Dark Sky

[Paul the Bold]

City light pollution is far worse than it needs to be. Visit the International Dark Sky Association homepage for more information.

The point the society is trying to make is that 50%-70% of the light from outdoor lighting is wasted (points to the sky, not the ground). This causes light pollution and doubles electricity bills. Their solution has been to design alternate lighting fixtures that fit ordinary light poles.

Re:City Lights... QWZX

[alienmole]

Actually, I'm not a city boy, and what I'm talking about is that "the country" can be a hellofa distance from a major metro area like New York, which is surrounded by other cities and towns.

The kinds of skies that I grew up with can't be found anywhere on the East coast of the US, including places like Vermont and New Hampshire. The combination of air pollution and light pollution has pretty much destroyed astronomical viewing conditions in all but the most remote places.

This problem is not confined to the most densely populated areas, either. If you go to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, they'll tell you about how the views from the various overlooks have degraded over the past few decades due to air pollution. Mesa Verde is in a location that's pretty "country", 9 miles from the tiny town of Cortez, and 35 miles from the only slightly larger town of Durango.

This level of pollution translates into poor astronomical viewing, and it's much worse when you're not that far out in the country.

Astronomy clubs in New York go to pathetic viewing locations in small parks along highways north of the city, where you can still barely see the Milky Way with the naked eye.

The bottom line is that the country which you so fondly fantasize about barely exists in the U.S. any more.

International Dark Skies

[discogravy]

There's an organisation dedicated to cutting down on light pollution. International Dark Skies

Check them out.

It's a serious problem for anyone that wants to see stars without leaving all of civilisation. Check out the difference:

The night sky from a Dark site

The night sky from a city.

Re:City Lights... QWZX

[orangepeel]

Someone else posted this link within the past week on Slashdot:

http://nationalatlas.gov/natlas/natlasstart.asp

Once the page has loaded, go to the top right frame titled "Map Layers" and scroll down to the "People" section. Try selecting the "Nighttime Lights" option and then click the "Redraw" button over on the left underneath the main map. It gives a good rendition of where the greatest sources of light are.

Perhaps a better way of estimating possible light polution is to instead select "Population per square mile - 1995" in the "Map Layers" frame, and then redrawing the map.

It's too bad they don't have population density information for Canada at that site.