Build your own Redneck Observatory

Redneck /rĕd′nĕk″/ (adj.) - Where there’s a will—and duct tape, a few bungee cords, some plywood, and maybe a few wood screws—there’s a way.

The two enemies of a dark sky are sky glow (a bright glow in the sky resulting from myriad city, town, and industrial lighting) and glare (nearby lights that shine in your eyes and create light trespass). You can’t do much about sky glow other than move somewhere where it’s darker, but you do have some options to deal with glare and light trespass.

Dealing with local lights, your options are:

1. Move somewhere else. Not feasible or even advisable for most people, at least in the short term.

2. Find a better place to observe. Whether it’s down the street or somewhere you need to drive to, it’s usually the best option, and you can often improve both the sky glow and glare situation. But we don’t always want to cart our gear beyond our home environs, and some nights it may only be clear for a short time and we want to take advantage of that right at home. Plus there’s the convenience and safety of being at home.

3. Talk to neighbors about shutting their lights off at night, shielding them, or putting motion sensor lights in. If you have only a couple of offending lights, this might work in the short term, but even cooperative and friendly neighbors will forget or want them on at times. My neighbors clearly believe all-night lights keep crime away and make them feel safe from the dark. I won’t get into the issues with that philosophy, but they have a right to think the way they do and I’m not likely going to change that.

You can also offer to show them stuff in your telescope and approach the lighting issue that way. Recently, I was at a cabin in the mountains, and my brother and I set up our telescopes outside our cabin. We set up before it got dark and it attracted the attention of our neighbors in the other cabins. By the time we were done showing them some objects and chatting about astronomy, we had no lights to worry about the rest of the night.

4. Accept the sky glow and block out the local lights. That’s what I’m talking about here.

At my house, the backyard is mostly blocked by trees and other houses. Therefore, I have to observe in the front yard. All of the neighbors up and down the street have all-night garage and porch lights, usually ten blazing away, none of which are shielded, and only one of which is on a motion sensor. In addition, I have headlights from a busy intersection shining directly at me as cars wait at the red light.

I took control of the situation and built what I call my “Redneck Observatory."

My observatory consists of found objects like my garbage and recycling cans, so I guess I could also call it my “Dada Observatory.” I have a car parked on one side of the driveway, I use frames from the packing of a bathroom sink we had installed, a PVC pipe holder for a target frame I built, some cheap moving blankets, some plastic spring clamps, and a few bungee cords.

The plan was to use stuff I already had sitting around nearby that would be easy to throw together to block out the lights. The car is usually parked there, so I just put a 4x4 piece of wood, left over from stacking flooring, along the edge of the roof with a short extension to hold a small moving blanket in place. The blanket is clamped to the end of an upright frame consisting of the aforementioned bathroom sink packing frame with a height extension made of furring strips (my favorite cheap wood) and old baseboard from the flooring job.

A packing frame leans against the garbage can and is bungeed to it to keep it from falling in the wind. The other packing frame (never throw stuff out that you might be able to use) leans against the recycling can and is likewise bungeed. A big moving blanket is thrown over both frames and clamped in place with spring clamps. The third wall, on the right, is my old PVC target stand with a frame made of furring strips and old baseboard, again with a moving blanket thrown over it and clamped in place.

It takes me 20 minutes to set up and break down if I take my time. Not my casual or optimistic estimate, I actually timed it. If I observe for an hour or more it's worth it to me. Rarely do I observe for a shorter time.

So before you give up, look around the house and see what you have. Maybe you can build your own Redneck Observatory.

 

Light pollution and the future of amateur astronomy

Photo by VillageHero (CC)

A thread on the Cloudy Nights forum got me thinking about light pollution and the future of amateur astronomy, especially the visual astronomy that I love so much. I can only say for certain that amateur astronomy, for those whom circumstances allow, will still be an enjoyable hobby in the future in some form or another.

Based on trends I'm seeing now from my limited point of view, cheap Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA), or some semblance of it, will likely be the mainstream portal for new amateur astronomers or casual hobbyists until the next big thing comes along. We're almost there already. EAA is the use of a camera in lieu of an eyepiece at the telescope to capture and view images in near real time. It has recently become more affordable with the introduction of the Seestar S50 Smart Telescope, which is often paired with a tablet on a tripod for viewing its images. While still hindered by light pollution, these telescopes can cut through much of it, making for satisfying imaging even in light polluted areas.

People want to create something to share on social media, not just look at stuff. Who creates astro images and doesn't share them online? Here I am sharing material on visual observing because I can't share the actual views themselves, other than describing them in words or sketches. Social validation is huge in our society, probably always has been, and I don't see that changing.

I think most astro-imaging will be done from the comfort of home using data obtained in the backyard, from remote telescopes, and from data shared online (like Hubble data). Why drive way out, freeze in the cold, set up equipment, etc. when it will no longer be necessary? 

Will light pollution still be an issue for amateur astronomers? I think it will likely only be a pressing issue for a shrinking group of visual astronomers. Imagers, who used to be the biggest proponents of keeping the sky and observing field dark, now can obtain and process fantastic images from horribly light polluted locations, like this one from someone's backyard in Washington, DC. They can reject frames ruined by light, satellites, planes, clouds, etc. Sure, dark skies are better, but are no longer essential to create great deep-sky images. Visual observers have no such recourse.

At our public and club-only star parties, imagers are now the ones with bright unshielded screens, along with those with EAA setups, because dark adaptation no longer matters to them. At the latest public event, a young girl asked me, "Why do you ban white lights and pass out red filter material for our phones when you all have your bright white screens on?" I couldn't answer her.

In the foreseeable future, I think a few visual observers will be the only amateur astronomers with the self-interest to fight light pollution, and it may be mainly wildlife enthusiasts that take up the torch (see what I did there). I think most visual observers will just drive (or move) somewhere darker, or observe the bright planets, the Moon, the Sun, and double stars at or closer to home. That's what I do now.