How to Start a Hobby in the Worst Possible Location

Hi. I live in the Pacific Northwest. More specifically, I live about 40 miles east of the farthest west you can possibly get in the Pacific Northwest. You might have heard of us. There’s a temperate rainforest 30 minutes from my house. It’s so dark and grey, someone literally wrote a whole series of books about how vampires would like it here. I once had to clean moss off the roof of my car. I have seven species of ferns in my yard that I didn’t plant and don’t water.

So, it’s rains here. A lot.

The other thing you should know, if you don’t already, is that the Pacific Northwest is home to some pretty majestic trees. Douglas fir, western red cedar, hemlocks. They’re monsters and they grow like weeds. They grow like that because: did I mention it rains here? My yard alone is home to at least a dozen 100′ tall giants. They shed needles like crazy. If humanity could figure out how to turn fir needles into a biofuel, I would be the ExxonMobil of fir needle suppliers. I love these trees and won’t get rid of one of them, but the canopy in my yard yields an area of open sky just shy of the footprint of my modest house and directly overhead at the zenith. Click my allsky camera link for the visual proof. I get from about 70º to the zenith in all directions, plus a peek-a-boo view due south.

Sure, the nights are long. In the winter. When it rains all the time. In the summer when we get clear skies, astronomical dusk occurs at midnight and astronomical dawn occurs 2 hours after that. I mean, fair point, I’m only Bortle 5. I could live in NYC. But, this is my party and I’ll cry if I want to.

In short, I live in the worst possible location in the world for astrophotography. But, after a lifetime of reading about the universe, I got the bug to finally take some pictures of it. Bad. This blog will attempt to document my pitiful efforts on that front–from the worst possible location to do it from.

Game on…