08/20/2008, Cambridge, MA
I occasionally peruse the Light Pollution forum over on Cloudynights, though it is of course mostly depressing stuff, and I have on occasion wanted to post my own views on this topic ... but I fear I would get moderated into silence. I think people would attribute views to me which I don't actually hold, and it would get very ugly.
This, on the other hand, is the blog of an up-front "cranky" astronomer.
My stand on this is simple. Simplistic, even. I am of the opinion that the problem of light pollution will not go away unless and until the problem of overpopulation is addressed, and that tide turns.
As I said. Simple. VERY simple. Simplistic. Look at a light pollution map. Where are the dark spots? Where people aren't. Look at a bunch of maps illustrating the spread of light pollution over the years. What are you looking at "under the hood"? The spreading of population.
Is this really controversial? Is it false? I am not talking here about how population growth should be controlled (and reversed), I am just ... hinting, I suppose ... that for the good of the planet, it should happen. Everywhere. It is bigger than "the impact of the spread of light pollution on amateur (or professional) astronomy" but in the interest of space and of not appearing like a bigger loonie than I am, I will leave it here.
This is my opinion.
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07/31/2008, Springfield, VT
A number of things, including finances and a dramatic spike in my misanthropy (you knew I was called the Cranky Astronomer for a reason, right?) kept me from attending the full week of pre-Convention and Stellafane 2008, but I was there Monday and Tuesday (7.28 and 29) and the evenings proved to be reasonably good stargazing material ...
I guess it is fairly common knowledge that Stellafane skies are not what they once were. If you need a dramatic illustration of the creeping cancer that is light pollution, all you have to do is come to this once-rural hilltop site and look south at night. There on the horizon are two fat light domes -- one, I am told, caused by Keene, NH. I don't recall what the other one is. In the summer, though, Scorpius and Sagittarius float directly over these.
The first night I observed through friends' scopes from the historic Pink Clubhouse side of things, until a wall of cloud encroached from the west, along with frequent sheet lightning (no severe weather was to be had, I'm happy to say). One of the scopes was a magnificent 16" created by the master, Normand Fullum, who does unbelievable things with wood -- and with glass, it seems! The other scope was a wonderful 12.5" Dob made by my STM-friend Jay Drew. Between the two scopes we assayed Jupiter and several globular and open clusters before the clouds moved in ...
The second night started out partly cloudy. I sat on a bench on the observing field over at Stellafane East trying to decide whether to haul my trusty 8" Dob up from my campsite or declare it an evening of annoying sucker holes. Eventually the Astronomer won out over the Cranky and I went to get the 'scope.
I am glad I did, because by the time I had set it up, the sky was largely clear of clouds! After a while, Stellafane regular John Vogt started to get his giant 32" "yard cannon" ready.
Here is the list of what I saw, in no order at all: Jupiter, M31, M33, M17, M8, M20, M22, M28, M81, M82, M51, M63, M71, M27, M13, M92, NGC 6207, NGC 7789, h / x Persei, and the brighter part of the Veil Nebula.
My trusty Discovery Dob performed really well, though there was a notch in the diffraction disk I have to look into, and dew was a big problem that night: the Telrad got pretty fogged up, and my charts got pretty wet, too.
Before leaving I got views of M17 and M27 through John's 32". They were stunning! M17 in particular showed detail I could scarcely believe.
I went to sleep on the ground happy.
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06/29/2008, Arlington, MA
In something of an odd year-later lather, rinse and repeat of this post, I finally became way too tired of my craven "I can't DO that" responses to people who urged me to stop whining and just set the telescopes up outside somewhere ... and took my not-new but never-used C102 HD refractor out to the front lawn of the house I have an apartment in ...
I did this a couple of nights a couple of weeks ago (the weather has been stormy/cloudy since), mainly to look at the Moon, which I'd spotted on a walk to and from the gym. Perhaps it was the workout that strengthened my resolve ... I don't know.
The front yard is far from an ideal observing location. I live on a busy intersection in metro Boston, one block away from the even busier Massachusetts Avenue (not as busy here as it is down in Cambridge, say, but still). The front lawn is fairly floodlit with streetlights and the unfortunate glare of car headlights (one of the streets feeding into the intersection approaches it uphill, meaning the worst of those headlights hits the yard directly).
Crummy observing spot ...
... but dear me, the terminator was beautiful. This scope appears to be a good one, for all its mass-produced-ness, and I spent a happy couple of nights looking at an approximately first quarter Moon, Saturn, and the dancing butterscotch blot of Mars in the Western sky.
The second night I identified Arcturus nearly overhead, and then spotted Cor Caroli. I'd been shown how to find the globular cluster M3 a few Stellafanes ago by Stargazer Steve Dodson, so I thought "well ... might as well try since I'm out here," despite the poor conditions ... and dang if I didn't snag it, looking faint and underwhelming from that unlikely vantage point, but undeniably THERE.
And as they inevitably do, those nights energized me. I am somewhat interested in finding some kind of trailer for my bicycle that might be able to haul the refractor and some accessories around: maybe I could bike myself away from the worst of the glare some fine night. I don't know.
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