Frustrations’ Of A Star Gazer
April 26th 2010 03:04
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For budding amateur astronomers star gazers in general there has never been so much technological advancement. We now have at our disposal unlimited access to information not possible a few decades ago.
We have better advancement in telescope imaging software high speed internet. There is a vast amount of astronomical images and information data online all you need to do is point your mouse.
Despite all the technological advancements most of us live in cities and towns where the natural light from the stars has been almost extinguished.
We are at fear of losing our natural ability to connect with the heavens’.
I am not talking about religion just our basic need to belong not just in this world but beyond. The irony is we can navigate our way around a computer simulation, we can see the constellations on the screen yet we can’t go outside and see the Big Dipper or Orion because of the light pollution.
The problem will grow ever more extreme, equipment will improve even though dark skies are tinged with the lights of urban sprawl.
The future of amateur astronomy is, perhaps, a mirror of the rest of the world's future better technology in a light polluted environment.
The wonder of the stars belongs to all of us, why should we have to travel to distant unspoiled locations to catch a glimpse of the heavens just to see what they really look like.
No matter where our future takes us, some observers will never let anything stop them.
Moving form a country location to the bright lights of the city I began to think that my sky watching nights were over fortunately I was wrong!
Living in a rural setting I had been so accustomed to having my telescope on hand in perfect observing conditions that I had failed to see that there were other options available.
Moving to the bright city light proved challenging .After a few months of whining I considered my options. I could chose to travel outside the city and sky watch on weekends. I could book an astronomical remote imaging telescope session online using the internet.
This has enabled me to hunt for comets and I did not have to leave my chair. The benefits of remote telescope access is that you have better access to more powerful telescopes and imaging cameras in numerous locations around the world.
If the weather is cloudy and raining where I am I can choose another remote access location where the weather is clear.
There is the option to just observe the brightest objects I could see outside my city apartment concentrate on the Moon and objects in Solar system
Most of us don’t have the time or the resources to travel to a location where there are no bright lights but we can still enjoy sky watching by making an effort to see that there are alternatives.
Chose an area of the house where light is least intrusive, turn off unnecessary lights. Use binoculars instead of a telescope. Try and locate the brightest constellations in your area.
Download free software program such as Stellarium to show you the location of the objects you’re interested in.
The major planets are a good start Mercury Venus Mars, Jupiter and Saturn you can still see Mercury Venus Mars and Jupiter even Saturn with the naked eye even in areas with strong light pollution.
You need to know where to look and the best time to look for these objects that’s when a good free software programs is handy.
Time to get serious with a bit of experimenting with my digital camera I can capture images of meteorites and constellations.
The image quality is reasonably good considering my camera is not top of the line. I can enhance and remove most of the noise ( used to be called grain in the olde film days) apply colour correction using frees software available on the internet.
Most of my images photographed from my city home are almost as good as the ones I take in areas where there the light pollution is moderate.
Although I have Photoshop there are some great free programs like Gimp that can do most things Photoshop does.
Another program I use is Registax this program is also free. With Registax I can use multiple images and stack them to make one enhanced image. I will write a future blog on how to use these software packages and how to make the best of your night images.
I hope to have a section on photographing and processing night images 101 soon.
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