Vent: my star trails shot got wrecked by a porch light 2 houses down in Boise
I was 40 minutes into a 60 minute stack when my neighbor's motion light kicked on and stayed on, so I walked over and asked him to pull the bulb for the night, and he actually did. Now I check his driveway before I set up, and I'm wondering if anyone else has a light map for their own street.
Man, the light map idea is smart but here's the thing nobody talks about: it changes with the seasons. That motion light on your neighbor's porch might not matter in summer when trees are full of leaves and blocking half the sky, but come November when those leaves drop, suddenly you've got a clear line of sight to every light on the block. Same goes for the sun's path. In winter the sun sets way south of where it does in June, so a streetlight that never touched your frame in July will sit right in the corner of it by December. I keep notes in my phone with dates on them, like "porch light at 412 visible after Oct 15" kind of stuff. Takes a year to build a real map but after that you actually know where to set up instead of guessing every time.