Light Polution Around Calgary. How far do we need to go? Does the snow interfere?

Hello, everyone.

My #1 son is very interested in astrophotography. I've always been interested in it, but it has never been a big priority for me. His prompting has led me to dig further into it.

I've been able to get loads of great information from this forum and from online tutorials (most of which were linked to from this forum). I feel that from a technical standpoint, we have a basic understanding of most things.

I don't really know where to go to shoot, however. We can practice our setups in our back yard, but we live smack in the middle of the city and light pollution is terrible.

Here is the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor from the 2006 Light Pollution Atlas, overlayed on Google Maps:

I just found something interesting. It looks like we could get useable images in the red zone.

After reading this http://www.lonelyspeck​.com …-angeles-light-pollution/, I checked to see what light pollution zone the images were taken in. The park is smack in the middle of the red zone.

I can get into the red zone in under ten minutes. I can get into the bright yellow zone in around a half hour. It looks like we'll be able to play around in, and close to, the city a bit before heading farther out.

The snow will definitely interfere. Because it is made of ice, it is highly reflective and will put any nearby light sources back up into the sky. Also watch out for 50+% moons as it will cause a lot of light pollution, even without snow.

As far as where you can go, it depends on your post processing skills and what types of photos you want to take. As your link shows, you can clear up light polluted photos with a decent amount of effort. I personally try to get as far out as possible (even if it means traveling for hours). I would say every time you go out, head to a different zone and see what you can live with, otherwise your best bet is to head to Banff. I recommend going down there early during the day and scouting out places, then hanging around in the area until night.

Astronomy and Astrophotography are unique in that they require a lot of time commitment and effort. I often drive for hours and set up my equipment (I also use a telescope) until the sun comes up. You are entirely dependent on the weather, so a lot of weather research is required before an outing, but even doing so I've spent hours sitting around waiting for the skies to clear. Winter is absolutely the worst time for AP as it is quite cold and you have to spend plenty of time outside. I wear several layers including wool socks and long johns when going out in the winter. Although you can just show up, snap a shot, and leave, I've found that my best results come from spending quite a bit of time under the stars, especially if I'm driving long distances to get there. Something you may want to look at is Stellarium, a free PC planetarium software. It'll help you locate the Milky Way for your location which will make setting up your shots a lot easier.

Hope to see the results from your outings. Good luck!

Thanks, bmurdock.

My digital PP skills are pretty barebones. They're sufficient for what I normally shoot . . . but astrophotography is a whole new ballgame. I'm going to have to do a lot of fiddling and learning.

My plan, as soon as I get a night where I can actually see the stars here in the city, is to test all of my gear in my yard. I'll be testing "Deep Sky Stacker," and for my first run I'll shoot light, dark, flat, bias, and flat dark frames so I can test them all to see what effects they have on the final image, and how to pp them for the best results. I'm going to need to play around close to home before we drag everything out anywhere.

Thank you for the "Stellarium" suggestion. I'll download it and check it out. I've been messing with a couple of Android apps ("Google Sky Map,""Astro Panel," and "Night Sky Tools") to help guide me a bit, but they won't be as effective as an actual PC program. According to Astro Panel, I might have a very narrow window of opportunity early Wednesday evening before the moon rises.

I agree that the cold makes it challenging (I ice fish), but on the flip side, I get a lot more hours of dark in the winter. On Dec. 21 the sun rose 8:37 AM and set at 4:32 PM. On June 21 it will rise at 5:21 AM and set at 9:55 PM. I get about 8 more hours of darkness on the shortest day of the year. At this point, however, I don't know how the other factors (transparency, humidity, etc) are affected by the winter months.

I suppose all of the darkness is part of what has triggered this for us. We've been getting antsy about getting out to shoot again, and astrophotography seems like a great reason.

If you dont mind a little drive you can go here

http://www.cypresshill​s.com …xplore/elkwater​/9-alberta

They are a light pollution free type zone

We go there quite a bit, nothing like it

Walter

Nearly all of my photos are taken in a red zone with a LPS filter.

There is no substitute for going to darker skies, but if that isn't an option, you can pickup some targets from a white zone. I just saw some pics taken from central Tokyo. The photographer couldn't see any stars to align on. After struggling through alignment, they got some great shots of the Orion nebula. It's a bright target.

whaase wrote in post #16602700
If you dont mind a little drive you can go here

http://www.cypresshill​s.com …xplore/elkwater​/9-alberta

They are a light pollution free type zone

We go there quite a bit, nothing like it

Walter

Cypress Hills is about double the distance that I'd like to go for a standard excursion. I've never been there, but I have several colleagues who head out there regularly. They all rave about it.

I'm mulling over Twin Lakes as a possible "regular" spot. We've camped and ice fished there before, and it is pretty close to the city.

Footbag wrote in post #16611340
Nearly all of my photos are taken in a red zone with a LPS filter.

There is no substitute for going to darker skies, but if that isn't an option, you can pickup some targets from a white zone. I just saw some pics taken from central Tokyo. The photographer couldn't see any stars to align on. After struggling through alignment, they got some great shots of the Orion nebula. It's a bright target.

I don't have one of those filters. I'll have to see about getting my hands on one.

Having looked at your gallery . . . I would be thrilled to get those kind of results!

My darling other half said to me last night "Honey, could you use a telescope for taking pictures of the stars? You know how much I'm into astronomy, and I've never had a telescope. If we could both use it, I'd like to get one."

We might pick up a Celestron NexStar 6SE. While it wouldn't be great for astrophotography, it might be fun to play around with. It would be more for the boys than for me.