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.

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!

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.