Just realized my neighbor's simple advice about light pollution was right

I was talking with my neighbor, Mr. Henderson, last night while we were both outside, and he pointed out that the streetlight by my driveway washes out the whole eastern sky. He said, 'You're fighting a light you can move away from.' So I took my scope about twenty feet further into the yard tonight, behind my shed, and the difference viewing the Andromeda Galaxy was huge. Has anyone else found a surprisingly simple spot in their yard that made a big difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

maryh961mo ago

Ugh, I have to be the one to say it? Moving your whole setup for one streetlight seems like a lot of work for a tiny gain. I mean, light pollution is a blanket problem from the whole area, not just one lamp. Maybe it's just me, but I've tried hiding from lights before and you always find another glow somewhere else. It feels like you're just chasing small wins instead of accepting that you need to drive out to real dark skies.

grantt111mo ago

Honestly, that's a wild take. A single bright light right next to you is way worse than general sky glow. It's like trying to watch a movie with a flashlight in your eyes versus just a dim room. Moving twenty feet to get a shed between you and that lamp is a total game changer. It's not a tiny gain, it's the difference between seeing something and seeing nothing.

jamienguyen2d ago

Had a buddy who swore by this exact thing. He lives in a town with streetlights every 50 feet and used to just give up on night photography altogether. One night he got annoyed enough to drag his tripod behind a neighbor's shed and suddenly got shots of the milky way he'd never seen from his backyard before. He told me that one light was blocking way more than he ever realized. So yeah, I think moving twenty feet can totally be the difference between a blank sky and a good photo.