I used to live in Central Jersey. I thought that the light pollution there must be terrible due to its proximity of NYC. I did manage to view some damage from the comet Jupiter crash.

1995 I moved to the Poconos and viewed the one comet from my bedroom window as I slept/woke.

Now I am in Nashville and its rather Metro. I live 7 miles from the State Capital, downtown area. I'm just on the verge of the wooded areas.

But I've lost my desire to view the heavens due to what seems like a disproportionate amount of light polluition.

I've been wanted to set up my 8 inch Dob for a long time as a sidewalk astronomer, right on 2nd Ave. Its just hard to get inspired...

Don't give up just yet. You may not be able to set up your telescope where you live, but the nice thing about Nashville is that there are enough hills within the metro area that it shouldn't be hard to find a place to set up and have decent viewing. If you haven't already, you might drop by the Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory on one of the exploration nights.

Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory

I went camping this weekend, east of Nashville, in the boonies. The sky was so illuminating I was awestruck. I forgot where to start looking, there were so many stars.

I used to visit my Mom up in Sussex County, NJ where the stars are clear. I always saw the same cloud stream. I didn't know, until I realized it is the Milky Way.