[APML] Light pollution effect on film photography?

["Tim Kearsley" <tim@cirrus.demon.co.uk>]

Hi all,

First of all, thanks to those who responded to my request a few days ago
about the Sprintscan 4000 scanner.

As a newcomer to film astrophotography, I would value the opinion of the
experienced people on this list about how serious is the effect of light
pollution on film photography.

I live on the outskirts of a town, with other villages and towns around, and
my sky, certainly in three directions, has that awful orange glow of sodium
lamps seeping up from the horizon.  I would estimate that limiting visual
magnitude at the zenith is around 4.0 - 4.5.  I suppose my question really
is how damaging that degree of pollution is to photography with film.  I
know that planetary and lunar photography is largely unaffected by such
factors, but I use a CCD for such work anyway!  What I would love to take is
wide vistas of star fields and objects such as the North America nebula.
Are such aims impossible from my type of location?

Many thanks,

Tim Kearsley
Northamptonshire
England



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