Hello all,

Another cold night here in Tennessee. 24º I'm blanked with Light Pollution from Clarksville. I'm on the outskirts. But have Mercury vapor likes hampering within a 100 yards from an apartment complex. My visability is down to a 6.5 magnitude. A little haze brightened up the sky resulting last night in the 6.5 mag. I did get on M81 but it was such a faint fuzzy. I almost missed it. Thank god for Mizar - my reference star.

Does anyone have suggestions for better viewing toher than at the zenith? Some object's just are never at the zenith as you know. A star party would be nice but I'm disabled and star parties are a once a year event maybe.

A change to a DOB is out of the question because of the weight and my inability to handle it with a leg brace and cane. I have all I can do to not drop my Celestron G8 8" SCT with tracking motors.
I have to carry it with one arm.

I have a 2" broadband filter. It works better than my Orion Skyglow LPR. I have found that the Orion Moon glow filter is not bad for deeper objects.

I'm certainly open to any suggestions? I still consider myself in between a beginner and advanced type astronomer. I do star hop and use Sky Atlas 2000.0. I don't think I could find the harder Messier objects without it. So it looks like I'm stuck down to a 6.5 magnitude for backyard viewing and late nights. Very hard for me. Any idea's from experience is appreciated in any form. Yes I have read the recent S&T on urban viewing.

Regards to the group,

Scott