Over the past eight months I've been slowly putting together a set up at my house that will allow me to do some descent observing from home with little prep time. The deck on top of the house has nearly unobstructed horizons in all directions but northeast and there is not much ambient glow in most directions as I am close to the ocean. The biggest problem is that the deck is about the same level as all the street lights in the neighborhood and without shielding from the glare its like a quarter moon every night.
The first order of business was to design a roll off shed for the scope. The 6'x4'x3' wooden box is on furniture wheels and rolls smoothly with a bit of a tug to get it going and has been water tight throughout the winter. There is a small amount of room for my chair and eyepiece case underneath the scope as it lays horizontally. I immediately ran into a problem when I left the scope stored for a couple of weeks and then noticed that the mirror had become a giant dew collector each morning as the sun rose and warmed the cool air inside. Yikes!!! The scope spend some time back in the garage after that. A little investigating on s.a.a. and the Kriege and Berry book led to an involved process of running an outlet into the roll off shed which also allowed me to forgo lugging the 12v battery for my dew zapper (I seem to get lots of dew here) up and down the stairs.
I now have a 25 watt lamp on behind the primary at all times the scope is unused and that has kept it dew free. For the past few months the set up has allowed some good short planetary observing sessions without worrying about screening the lights. 3 minutes and I was up and running. Somewhere along the line I build a small platform moveable that allows me to sit comfortable in my observing chair and covers the exposed skylight (wish that wasn't there!). By isolating the part of the deck where the where the scope contacts the deck the set up is remarkably solid. When seeing permits I've been able to track and stay steady at 300X.
In the mean time I called PG&E about shielding the most direct light (about 100' away). When I called locally they told me it would cost $200, so I just waited a few days called the 1-800 repair number and 3 days later the shield was installed free. Unfortunately it is not full cut off, some of the bulb still shows but it does direct all the light towards the ground. Deciding on a set up for shielding the observing area took some time. I wanted something easily removable, durable and cheap.
I've ended up with black canvas and thin metal electrical conduit painted black. Using slide in and bendable brackets attached to the deck railing and small sleeves sewn into the canvas I've designed a good beginning for a work in progress. The screen rises about 2" above the 3' railing in most directions with a 4'x4' section towards the nearest street lamp. After waiting for the final piece of canvas from the fabric store I finally had all the pieces together yesterday for the first time. I need to add a few extensions and I'm toying with a cable and pulley system idea to expedite the put up and take down time, but it is going to work :-).
I had an early meeting at work this morning and the weather report predicted clearing overnight, so I put up the screens before I went to bed and set the alarm for 3:15, a bit before moon set. As seems to be my fortune this year the clearing prediction was off, high haze greeted me but I was up and excited so a put on the warm fuzzy clothes and ducked under the curtain. What a glorious view. I felt as if I had been transported from my city dwelling to the "center" of the universe. The only thing visible above the black screens was the sky - no lights, no rooftops, no street, no telephone wires, nothing but space and stars. I was giddy with laughter. With haze limiting mag. was about 5.0 so I relaxedly checked out some Messier and nearby objects (M10, M12, M85, N4394, N4397, M100). Nothing stunning but definitely some pleasing little portholes into the night sky. As the clouds thickened before dawn I head into a 45 minute nap with a sense of satisfaction, throughout the process I couldn't be sure that what I had planned would work at all. I still will need to have some better nights to be certain, and there's lots of tinkering to do, but I think the place has potential.