My location

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View:

I observe from my city backgarden in the centre of Dordrecht, the Netherlands. As with all urban locations, my site has light-pollution, skyglow, and most of all: obstruction by houses and trees.

Just a few pictures to give you an impression:

To the East: my least restricted field of view. The sky is visible from 15 degrees above the horizon.

East

The North is somewhat obstructed by neighbouring houses. Just above the tree stands Polaris, so it is very easy to find that one!

North

The West: 100 year old, 18 meter high,  trees block my view to that region (as well as the houses do).

The South: even worse. Our house blocks it to almost 70 degrees up.

But: this does not mean you cannot see anything. See the picture of the constellation of Orion as it creeps behind the house.

Image made with a Nikon Coolpix 990

Observing sites:

I observe from two main sites: my backgarden, from which the view is as seen in the pictures above. But for some objects (Mars in 2003 and Southern objects) I have to use the balcony at the front of the house. Unfortunately this is a small balcony, so one leg of the tripod has to stand inside the house, in the open doors.

Just left of the telescope is Mars.



Yes, streetlights. (there is one less than 8 meters away)

The telescope when imaging Mars. The ToUcam is coupled to the telescope with the Vivitar 2x teleconverter. Note that the tripod of the telescope stands on a wooden block, to overcome the height distance between the floor inside and the balcony. Also the dewshield can be seen: the piece of cardboard near the right tripod leg.