Seeing 17-18th may 2011 night

[multiweb]

Was anybody else out there last night imaging or viewing in Sydney? Is it just me of was the seeing pretty bad? I couldn't get a good FWHM for the life of me. No ground breeze although it was very wet but I was heated up so not a dew problem. Just checking I didn't do anything wrong. :question:

[iceman]

It was terrible - I was trying to photograph the Moon at low-res (about 1000+mm focal length), and even at that low res it was wobbling and shimmering terribly.

[Mariposa]

did anybody photograph the halo around the moon last night?....it was awesome!.....I was out and didn't have the camera with me.

[lepton3]

I tried. We had thin cloud here in Adelaide, so it was hard to get the halo to stand out from the background in a photograph.

Here's a shot with the contrast stretched.

-Ivan
94284

[mikerr]

These fire hazard reduction burns may be having an effect on the seeing recently.

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_content.cfm?CAT_ID=689



Michael.

[multiweb]

Certainly on the transparency too. I wasn't aware they did back burning but looking at the jetstream map on skippy skies (http://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/)on the day I thought I'd get away with. It was border line. Clearly not. :P

... then again the forecast for tonight was clear...:shrug: ...clearly not again. Lucky I didn't set-up. If it clears it will probably be in the early hours of the morning.

[michaellxv]

Nice one Ivan. It look amazing didn't it.
What camera did you use? I had no hope of fitting it in the frame.

[mikerr]

Marc, thanks for the link to the Skippy Sky site. I wasn't aware of it and it looks to be quite useful.:thumbsup: Guess I choose the Coonabarban setting and study the 33s 150e area!

How do you make use of the Jet Stream info? Lots of wind high up means possibly clear sky??:help:

The Fire Brigade Burn offs are probably available in other states as well.


Michael

[multiweb]

I use skippy sparingly. More jetstream high up means less high altitude clouds but it doesn't mean you won't get lower or middle cloud cover. Light blue or red jetstream is a nono anyway. Not worth imaging unless you do super wide fisheye lens kind of field.

Here's how I try to assess if I'm going to drive to Ilford or set-up in my backyard.

1_ check skippy. Click on transparency only. Needs to be in the darker blues. If it's covered or moving in don't bother. If it looks like it might pass over then go to step 2.

2_ 7timer. Check the transparency, seeing and cloud cover. If it's not good don't bother. Especially transparency is very reliable on 7timer. If it looks ok go to step 3.

3_ type ozforecast <yoursuburb> in google. You get a list of the week days. When you click on each day it gives you a cloud cover for each day for the 24h covering the night. Check the cloud coverage across two days. Anything over 2% don't bother. If it's 0 to 2% you're ok. Go setup.