Post by Star Cluster on Aug 16, 2009 11:11:54 GMT -5
I'd absolutely love to get myself a telescope. Just two problems - money, and I live in New York City. We have some of the worst light pollution in the world. I'm not sure how much I'd see from here.
Both of those certainly are problems. In a light polluted area, aperture (diameter of the objective lens or mirror) means everything.) Unfortunately, the larger the aperture, usually, the more expensive the telescope.
A Dobsonian telescope is usually the least expensive type of mounted telescope as you can get more aperture per dollar. You could possibly find a good used one fairly cheap. Advantages of a "Dob" is that they are easy to transport and set up. Disadvantages are that they are usually manual telescopes and you have to know where to look to find nighttime objects. This can be overcome with good star maps or a planisphere that show where the most common and easy to see objects are located.
There are filters available for light polluted areas that block some of the bands of light produced by artificial city lights. While they don't totally block all light pollution, they do a fairly good job and are quite necessary in cities.
Also, not knowing which area of NYC you are in, two things that can help in general city observing:
1. Set up on the roof of a building. While this can get you above the street level lights, you would probably still have to deal with the lights from the taller buildings around you. The taller buildings would also tend to block parts of the sky from your view. There is also the glow to deal with, but the aforementioned light filter helps with that.
2. Get in as dark an area as possible. In NYC, the one place I can think of that might qualify is Central Park. The Great Lawn might be a good place to go to get away from as much light as possible. I don't know how dangerous it might be getting there at night, but I've heard things.
Again, I don't know how viable these options are for you in particular. I'm just offering suggestion to let you know there are ways around observing in light polluted areas. I love to share my love of astronomy and hate for anyone to miss out on it if they have the desire to see the amazing objects in the night sky.