First past the post

If you live in a city where it rains during most seasons and street lights shine not downwards to assist the inhabitants but upwards to obscure the Magellanic Clouds (and the streets), you might wonder how any fellow citizen could become an astronomer let alone remain one for any length of time.

Well, there are many of us insane enough to take on the challenge of being visual astronomers in suburbia and this blog site is set up in the infectious frenzy of the International Year of Astronomy to share the delights of backyard astronomy even amongst the light pollution, non-tradeable emissions of all descriptions and the ever-threatening clouds. We do have some good nights in the Big Ork, otherwise known as Jafa-vile (no, it doesn't have two "f"s or two "l"s) and the clear crisp rural skies are not too far away if we want to fleetingly flee the big smoke before our cappuccino-culture debts and necessary day-jobs drag us inexorably back.

So welcome to this site and I hope firstly that you enjoy my passion for sharing the Auckland night sky and secondly that you can feel free to contribute your own experience of naked eye viewing...even if you do live in Wellington.