The Urban Astronomer's Guide

the long version

Many amateur astronomers live in urban and highly developed suburban areas, and many of them believe that they can’t observe deep-sky objects from such light-polluted locations. But it isn’t true. Given the right techniques, urban astronomers can routinely observe deep-sky objects night after night – something most of us would never do if it involved driving miles into the country to find a dark site. Rod Mollise has observed the entire Messier list from his urban backyard, without high-tech equipment, using only commercially-made telescopes and simple accessories. This is a guide to good deep-sky astronomy under bad skies. There are literally hundreds of spectacular objects to be seen from the average urban site. After dealing with equipment, locations and even urban safety, Rod invites you to join him on his virtual "walking tours" of the night sky, with physical and observational descriptions, at-the-eyepiece drawings, and photographs.