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> Edit: my "old man" plans are to buy some property well outside of light pollution.

I've always wonder how feasible it was to do astronomy by boat? That way you can chase clear skies. And I'd suspect there is almost no light pollution out in the deep blue sea.

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The problem is that there is twice as much atmosphere between you and space at sea level than if you in Denver, Colorado. That can mean more distortion as the light passes through more dust and more thermally different layers before it reaches you.

That's a vast exaggeration. At Denver's altitude, 1608m, there's about 85% as much atmosphere as at sea level. To get down to 50% atmosphere, you'd need to climb to around 5500m which is higher than Mount Elbert.

it definitely gets dark out there, but you'd need a lot of stabilization to counter the motion of the waves if wanting to do imaging. For just viewing, it might be acceptable on a really large boat like a cruise ship. I've seen some footage from large container vessels that were not very long exposures that give an idea. humidity could also be an issue

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