The search for the best recording location

Hello fellow astrophotography enthusiasts and those who aspire to be,

In my first post, I described my search for the right starter equipment, which was finally found, assembled, and delivered by Karl Kloss.

Karl reassured me that my balcony wouldn't be big enough, and that the issue of the "unvisible Polaris" was resolved. So, on March 23rd, I began my astrophotography journey. After the typical beginner problems, I had to learn one thing first...patience and calmness.

Astrophotography isn't for people who lack patience and perseverance, because not only the equipment but also nature tests our patience more often than we'd like. After taking my first pictures (here, for example, the Dumbbell Nebula), I realized...

  I was light-years away from seeing in my photos what I had so admired on YouTube and other astronomy channels. The main problems I encountered were my own mistakes.

For example: improper polar alignment (due to time constraints—I only had certain time slots available—I performed a two-star or even a one-star alignment instead of a three-star one), poor focus, and ultimately, forgetting important preliminary steps (e.g., leveling the mount). All these things can be discouraging at the beginning, making you think, "I'll never get it right." But you'd be wrong. Patience is a virtue, and things can only get better next time.

So, you have to eliminate or solve the problems you create yourself. Problems like excessive light pollution (light radiation from artificial light sources that directly and indirectly affects our photography area at night) have to be addressed in other ways.

The most important question every beginner should ask themselves is: Where do I want to take photos? Do I generally want to photograph from my own space (balcony, garden, property), or from locations I've chosen myself? (Packing up equipment, accepting travel time, but a different location with potentially better lighting conditions due to darkness and less light pollution.)
Since it was clear to me from the start that I didn't want to lug my equipment around all the time, I began on our balcony. What I underestimated was the light pollution, and even more striking was the stray light reflected off our silver-painted aluminum facade.


Because this stray light kept appearing in my pictures, I started looking for an alternative location. I found one relatively quickly, but it presented a different problem.


 This is the alternative spot further back on our L-shaped property. Up on the balcony, all the equipment only had to be carried into the next room. Here I had to decide whether to carry everything around or leave it set up and try something else...

This solution (a cover normally used for beach chairs) was my preferred option. This allowed me to leave everything set up. Our property is secured, so no one could tamper with it at night. By October 2019, I unfortunately discovered in November that, despite the existing air vents, condensation had formed under the cover due to prolonged rainfall. This was a situation I absolutely could not leave as it was. Furthermore, limitations arose that made long-term monitoring difficult, as I essentially had to photograph from a dip in the ground compared to the elevated balcony.

Blickr. Süd-Ost Blickr. Ost  Blickr. West
Blickr. Nord-Ost   View to the Southwest

As you can see, there are quite a few limitations, which means you can't observe an object for very long. For certain objects (towards the zenith), this isn't a problem, but everything else requires very careful planning to maximize observation time.

Since this wasn't really satisfactory for me, I needed a different solution. More on that in the next blog post, which will cover planning and building my own observatory.

Until then, all the best, stay healthy, and clear skies!

Best regards, Axel