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today there was -- still is -- an unusual conjunction: mars and uranus. (ok, get all the bad jokes about mars getting frisky out of your system. i'll wait. ... ... done? ok.) given how faint uranus is relative to my sky, i figured this was my best chance of finding it and getting a picture of it. with the fancy new zoom eyepiece, my telescope should juuust barely be able to resolve it into a disk.
my sky was overcast until just before sunset, when it was briefly severe clear. but by the time it was dark enough for astronomy, it had clouded over again... and by the time it cleared enough for me to get the 'scope set up, mars was disappearing into the skyglow. *sigh*
this only confirms what i've long believed: if i'm gonna enjoy this hobby, i need darker skies. there's the dull way of dealing with that: rent time on somebody else's remote-control telescope. that'll work fine, but makes screwing around kinda pricey.
then there's the fun way of dealing with it: build a flying observatory, like a miniature SOPHIA. this is also kinda pricey, but worrying about money doesn't go well with "fun". :) the FAA is touchy about heavy drone operations over land for obvious reasons, but i'm conveniently near a big body of water, and if i can rig an over the horizon radio, i could even control a drone outside of US airspace.
assuming i don't go bananas with the aperture on an amateur flying telescope -- say a half meter/20" -- the drone doesn't need to be very big to bear its weight. hmmm. hmmmmmm...
my sky was overcast until just before sunset, when it was briefly severe clear. but by the time it was dark enough for astronomy, it had clouded over again... and by the time it cleared enough for me to get the 'scope set up, mars was disappearing into the skyglow. *sigh*
this only confirms what i've long believed: if i'm gonna enjoy this hobby, i need darker skies. there's the dull way of dealing with that: rent time on somebody else's remote-control telescope. that'll work fine, but makes screwing around kinda pricey.
then there's the fun way of dealing with it: build a flying observatory, like a miniature SOPHIA. this is also kinda pricey, but worrying about money doesn't go well with "fun". :) the FAA is touchy about heavy drone operations over land for obvious reasons, but i'm conveniently near a big body of water, and if i can rig an over the horizon radio, i could even control a drone outside of US airspace.
assuming i don't go bananas with the aperture on an amateur flying telescope -- say a half meter/20" -- the drone doesn't need to be very big to bear its weight. hmmm. hmmmmmm...