Jet contrails doom ground based telescopes

Try light pollution as a bigger problem than transient clouds.
It's already annoying as all get out trying to find a naturally dark place, even up in the mountains, that doesn't have backscatter light from cities 30-50 miles away. Everywhere you go, someone who's afraid of the dark has a couple search lights in their yard. By 2050 this entire planet will be lit up 24/7/365/1000 like a steenking lightbulb.
 
I bought my oldest son a 10" Dob for Christmas and light pollution is most definitely an issue. Some of it can be filtered out, but not all. We've been having a lot of fun with it and it has rekindled my interest in astronomy in a big way. We're keeping a list of Messier objects observed.

http://www.seds.org/messier/
 
fgcason said:
Try light pollution as a bigger problem than transient clouds.
It's already annoying as all get out trying to find a naturally dark place, even up in the mountains, that doesn't have backscatter light from cities 30-50 miles away. Everywhere you go, someone who's afraid of the dark has a couple search lights in their yard. By 2050 this entire planet will be lit up 24/7/365/1000 like a steenking lightbulb.
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The BEST is flying over a solid layer with a new moon........... Man, Nothing but stars :yes:
 
Eamon said:
The BEST is flying over a solid layer with a new moon........... Man, Nothing but stars :yes:
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Well, yeah, but try getting your telescope stabilized. :dunno: :p
 
Everskyward said:
Well, yeah, but try getting your telescope stabilized. :dunno: :p
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Stop overcontrolling the plane! ;)
 
Eamon said:
The BEST is flying over a solid layer with a new moon........... Man, Nothing but stars :yes:
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1. FBO has kittens when I even suggest renting within 2 hours of sunset or within an hour after sunrise. VFR=sun significantly above the horizon only.
2. Aircraft owner goes into cardiac arrest when I try to cut a 30" hole in the top of his airplane and start installing custom mounts. They even complain about taking windows out.
3. Everyone else screams bloody murder when I fly around for 3 hours with the position lights off (damned rotating beacon search light) even when I'm going in a predictable straight line.
4. Can't get high enough to shut the engine down (damned vibration) and glide for a 30 minute exposure.
5. Even if you put the control lock in, as far as the light bucket is concerned the plane is bouncing around like a rag doll in a terrier's mouth with all that atmospheric turbulence even on a calm winter night.

But yea, I know what you mean though. I've been on mountains >12,000 MSL deep in the backcountry on moonless nights. Pitch black and stars and nothing else. You can literally read a book just using the light from the Milky Way. It's just a pain in the derrier to haul a telescope back there solo. This will definitely happen when I get a plane with tundra tires or floats...
 
fgcason said:
Try light pollution as a bigger problem than transient clouds.
It's already annoying as all get out trying to find a naturally dark place, even up in the mountains, that doesn't have backscatter light from cities 30-50 miles away. Everywhere you go, someone who's afraid of the dark has a couple search lights in their yard. By 2050 this entire planet will be lit up 24/7/365/1000 like a steenking lightbulb.
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And by 2051 we will have run out of fossil fuels and eveyone it the world better get use to the dark agian. :p

Missa
 
Missa said:
And by 2051 we will have run out of fossil fuels and eveyone it the world better get use to the dark agian. :p
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Solar power and batteries. Stationary pedal bikes with generators. Big giant mirrors in orbit. Deliberately set fires. The human species will make light somehow because on the whole they are completely TERRRIFIED of the dark.

I don't want to have to wait until the end of civilization after everyone else has died off to use a telescope again.
 

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Eamon said:
The BEST is flying over a solid layer with a new moon........... Man, Nothing but stars :yes:
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Even better, try it at FL450. You would be amazed on how many stars you can see. :hairraise:
 
Whatch y'all need is a place in the rural mountains like I have....
 
fgcason said:
a pic of the US at night
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Oh look, there is my house, in the inkiest, blackest place... next to being 500miles off-shore! (we love it!)
Here, there is a wild uprising whenever a business owner installs a yard light in the pkg lot... letter to the editor just last week!
All night flying is loggable as 'by reference to....' however.
 
fgcason said:
Solar power and batteries. Stationary pedal bikes with generators. Big giant mirrors in orbit. Deliberately set fires. The human species will make light somehow because on the whole they are completely TERRRIFIED of the dark.

I don't want to have to wait until the end of civilization after everyone else has died off to use a telescope again.
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Hey, I think I see my house! Find San Diego. Work your way up the coast by following the continuous light signature. Past LA, keep going...See where the light trails off and there is just that one white dot hanging like an appendage? We're north of there. See where it's dark, before you get to San Francisco? That's us.
 
Frank Browne said:
I bought my oldest son a 10" Dob for Christmas and light pollution is most definitely an issue. Some of it can be filtered out, but not all. We've been having a lot of fun with it and it has rekindled my interest in astronomy in a big way. We're keeping a list of Messier objects observed.

http://www.seds.org/messier/
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I think that's awesome! I was 10 when my father brought home my first telescope. We discovered a lot. I can still find about 30 stars useful for navigating the heavens.
 
Richard said:
Hey, I think I see my house! Find San Diego. Work your way up the coast by following the continuous light signature. Past LA, keep going...See where the light trails off and there is just that one white dot hanging like an appendage? We're north of there. See where it's dark, before you get to San Francisco? That's us.
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Are you near Santa Maria? I had a co-worker some years ago who lives (I think still) near Santa Maria.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Oh look, there is my house, in the inkiest, blackest place... next to being 500miles off-shore! (we love it!)
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Would you like to have a quiet neighbor that doesn't like lights?

I've been using that map as a rough selection criteria on where to move next. Dark = good. Light = unacceptably repulsive. Some places in Siberia or deserted islands 1000 miles out in the South Pacific are more and more tempting every year. I always thought it would be fun to have a castle with a 1000+ mile wide moat full of sharks around it anyway. It should keep the riff raff at a distance.

Let'sgoflying! said:
Here, there is a wild uprising whenever a business owner installs a yard light in the pkg lot... letter to the editor just last week!
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The uproar here is when there's a slight shadow at night below about 100 candlepower. I have eight search lights within 100 feet of my balcony. Full moon lighting is undetectable background noise. Naked eye is limited to 2nd magnitude stars if you look in the darker directions away from the lights. My 60mm refractor with no night vision at all can get me 4th magnitude stars from here. Nothing below that due to staring into lightbulbs every direction that's not through the eyepiece. You can actually read a book in my apartment at night with the lights off.
 
fgcason said:
Would you like to have a quiet neighbor that doesn't like lights?
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Come on! likes airplanes too is a bonus!
You will be among dozens of private telescope owners and near a world-renowned observatory.
 
I'm reminded of a Simpson's episode in which Lisa conspires a plan with Bart to shut the towns power grid down so the whole city can see a Metor shower and again....albeit for a brief time, enjoy the heavens.
 
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