Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 22:32:05 -0500
From: Geoff Gaherty <geoff
Organization: Computer Communications
	Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2
References: <20060317200309.14668.qmail

Tim Crawford wrote:

> The typical average observer has to travel from their
> light polluted home area (one to two hours or more) to
> sites that offer reasonably dark skies, set up there
> equipment and then begin viewing; the majority of
> these folks, even when they have an interest in making
> a scientific contribution, simply do not have enough
> scope time to even satisfy their eye candy needs. 
> Therefore, the typical average observer, without a
> CCD, is unlikely to be a prospect (yes, there are
> always exceptions… just few and far between).

You're missing a very important point here: you don't have to leave your light 
polluted back yard to do visual variable star observing.  This was one of the 
things which drew me to variable star observing: it was something I could do 
_every_ clear night, right from the middle of downtown Toronto!  The light 
pollution limited my ability to observe really faint stars, but with my 11" 
Newtonian I was able to reach magnitude 13.4 on a regular basis.

Geoff

Geoff Gaherty  GHT
Foxmead Observatory
Coldwater, Ontario, Canada
http://www.gaherty.ca
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