When I signed the lease for my new flat a few months back I loved it's city centre location, the 50 takeaways within walking distance and the balcony looking out across the central park. What I didn't expect was the sheer amount of light pollution that I'd see from the windows. Sure it's the city centre I was expecting some, but my last flat was only 1/4 mile away so I was expecting that to be worse.
So I'd decided that I'd have to wait till I had a place somewhere more rural to buy my first telescope and start to properly look at the skies like I've always wanted. It seems that Santa Claus had a different idea and so I've been looking out at the moon and calibrating my scope against a local landmark.
I've been really impressed with this educational site which I've found and I've managed to find some of the brighter stars in the sky which still shine out against the city skyline.
I'm amazed by the one simple tip I found on the site
look at the sky with the naked eye and count the stars, keep looking up, after a minute count the new ones
I can feel myself getting more ambitious as I type...