P. wrote: you don't see colours like the pics, unless you take pics, right? Very true. Even if you could use a spacecraft and reduce your distance to nebulae by a factor of 1000 they still would not look like photographs amateurs take. Color in astrophotos is 'art'. However, I have seen color in telescopes. But only on a few objects (orion nebula, trifid nebula) but only in scopes 25" or bigger. I've also learned that color vision varies greatly from person to person. Mike Wirths can easily see color in ic418 (the "raspberry") but I cannot, even with a 25" scope. I've been lucky enough to be at a public star night at McDonald observatory, in west Texas, where they let us look through an 82" scope. (I learned new swear-words that night.) I would argue that those views were pretty close to what "things really look like". -ad On Mon, Oct 25, 2021 at 2:35 PM PolyWogg <thepolyblog@...> wrote:
Hi Greg,
I am a member of RASC and the former Star Party Coordinator, and part of my motivation in doing that job was because it was open and it was the only way I could reliably guarantee I had somewhere to observe. :)
As Attilla noted, there are a few official areas. There are also some informal unofficial areas where "nobody complains", but lack of complaint is not my idea of "permission". When I joined RASC, I thought there might be a list of all the best places in Ottawa to observe, even some lists of parks or baseball diamonds/soccer fields in the outer areas that would be empty at night without lights. Nice big open fields? Nope. And honestly, people couldn't likely recommend them from anything like RASC officially anyway. There was a presentation about 2y after I joined and it was on places to observe, I was so excited, and nada. I already knew the places the person covered.
RASC/Almonte is likely your best bet, and the closest.
However, I will throw in a small piece of information. I was wondering how to find those outer fields, and it occurred to me that there is someone who would know -- the police who patrol the areas! So I reached out to the Community Liaison Officers noting we couldn't be in city parks after 11, and we don't want any issues of using telescopes near houses and people thinking we're peeping, etc. And asking if there was anyone I could chat with who does regional/rural patrols who could perhaps tell me where there were some dark public fields. The CLO patiently explained to me they couldn't do that, because it would be too much like endorsement, and if we went somewhere they told me, and I got hurt, well, it's a poopfest for everyone if I turn out to be a jerk or litigious or both.
However, she did say that city police are generally not going to kick me out of a public parking lot or field if I'm doing astronomy. They may come by, they may ask you what you're doing, but most of the time, they'll look through the scope if you let them, and then drive away. The 11:00 curfews are there to give them power to shut people down who are making a nuisance of themselves or to roust transients. Astronomers rarely are seen as rabble rousers. Private security like Garda are often more rules-focused because if there's a complaint later, they get reamed for it. Cops would tell the person complaining to go screw themselves, Garda takes it seriously cuz if many people complain they're not doing their job, they lose the contract. In my experience, police confirm what the CLO told me...they generally don't care unless someone complained, and even then, they check to see what you're doing, and go on to more important things.
Some have been booted by police, and everyone has a story, but I've used different parks from time to time, and never had an issue. I've had cops park in the same lot doing their reports and never came to even talk to me. I've had dozens of cars pass me (not in the same night) and never even bothered to get out of the car. Of course, if you have a large dob / cannon on a flight path to the airport...
My last thought, though, is that I feel like their attitude changes the longer you go past midnight / 1:00 a.m. / 2:00 a.m. They often don't understand that people are sitting doing imaging for long periods of time and one of the annoying parts is they swing in with their cars and light you up with their headlights, destroying night vision.
One last caveat though...you mentioned going to dark skies and seeing what things really look like...I assume you know that you don't see colours like the pics, unless you take pics, right? What you see in the city isn't a whole different from what you see in the wild, just more light, more detail...it's way better, sure, but not way "different", no colour, doesn't look like Star Trek, etc. Just managing expectations if you go to Almonte. FYI, if you're considering membership in RASC to get access, you can also likely go out on a "trial" basis with someone who is running the observatory. And fyi, members get access to the site but if you also do a training course, you can also join a smaller club within the centre that accesses the larger scopes on site out there too (instead of hauling your own gear).
P.
On Mon, Oct 25, 2021 at 2:05 PM Adam Bell <adambell714@...> wrote:
Hi Greg,
I'm in a similar position, new to astronomy and live in downtown Ottawa (golden triangle). I've tried several locations with mixed results.
Parking lot P16 (Meech Creek Valley) in Gatineau Park is my preferred site. Under 30 minute drive from downtown, decent skies, good field of view (large clearing), plowed in the winter.
The Ottawa light dome is south (might be a nuisance, depending on what you plan to obeserve). I have seen one other astronomer there recently. Gatineau Police came through one time, friendly, asked me what I was doing and left, but it made me wonder how safe the site might be if the police make an effort to patrol it. I tried the area around P15 as well but it wasn't great.
North Frontenac Dark Sky Preserve is amazing, I met some good people there the one time I went. Long drive though.
I think I will join the Ottawa RASC chapter and use their site (Fred Lossing Observatory) as others suggested. It's not much further than Gatineau anyway.
-Adam
|
