[__egb__]

It really depends what your goals/targets are. You can still do a lot with narrowband filters that make light pollution a minimal concern.

One of my favorite images was taken from a resort balcony with my telescope directly under a fluorescent light (pretty bright, probably a 75W equivalent) with plenty of other lights along the building and sidewalk below. I used an Optolong L-eXtreme filter.

I always show people the picture of the telescope setup first (which includes a fully-lit cruise ship passing in the background), get the, “Why did you even bother bringing a telescope to Aruba if there wasn’t anywhere good to use it?” reaction, then show my final image of the Lagoon nebula.

At home it’s not as bad, but there’s still a streetlight about 50 meters away, plus the neighbors’ deck lights…yet I don’t need to care about that at all.

Bonus, not fumbling around in almost complete darkness makes things so much easier when setting up and breaking down the gear.

[aaronbrethorst]

you can't not link to your photograph of the lagoon nebula after all that :)