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Hot take: please check your neighbor's porch light before you blame your scope
I was out in my yard last Friday around 11pm trying to find the Andromeda galaxy with my 10x50 binoculars and I just could not see it, kept telling myself my eyes were bad or my glass was fogged. Next night my neighbor two houses down turned off the light above his garage and suddenly I could spot it from the same exact spot on my patio. That one bulb is maybe 8 feet from his driveway and it was washing out everything low in my northeast sky. I walked around with my phone and that free light meter app and his porch light was adding a ton of glow at 50 feet away. So before you buy a new eyepiece or drive somewhere darker, go stand in your viewing spot and actually look for lights you can ask someone to switch off. Has anyone else knocked on a neighbor's door and had it go okay, or did it get weird?
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the_michael1mo ago
Wrote off porch lights as a minor thing for years until I started keeping a log and realized my worst nights lined up with someone's garage light two doors down. Now I walk the yard before every session and just ask, and most folks are cool about it once you explain you're not casing the place. The knock is way less awkward than dropping cash on gear that won't fix a light problem.
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