Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Hi Michael,
I have been planetary imaging since 2002 and can give you some advice.
The jet stream maps are often wrong. Added to this local conditions can and do affect the quality of the seeing. Things like large topographical features such as mountains, cliff faces and the like affect the quality of the seeing of your local area and the influence can be seen for a hundred kilometers. If the prevailing wind is coming from the behind those features the seeing will generally be poor as eddies are caused from the turbulence. Similarly seeing is affected by buildings which discharge heat during the night.
The best place to image the planets is when they are high in the sky, however even then seeing can be poor or average on many nights. This ultimately means one must check every clear night. One night in 20 might provide good to excellent seeing.
Get to know the weather well for your local area. Good seeing can often happen when there is a high pressure located over your site. Keep persisting in your endeavor and you will eventually have a win.
That said this image is not so bad, it still shows detail.
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Thanks Paul, useful observations to take on board and from someone who produces fine planetary images. I had been working all week and Friday night for a change, was looking good. I could sleep in on Saturday so I was always going to give it a go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan Buda
Hi Michael,
I wanted to do some imaging too last night, but after watching the seeing until about 9pm, I decided not to waste time as the seeing was mediocre.
In case you wanted a second opinion on the seeing.
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Nice to have that reassurance it wasn't just me that was disappointed with the forecast. You've been very quite of late, I miss your spectacular planetary images, has this year been that bad that it's not been worth giving it a crack on any night, or are you just having a break for a while?
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Impressive image Paul. But what is an NTB outbreak?
Greg
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I imagine you weren't referring to my image, it's far from impressive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tulloch
I was out last night too - after 2 straight weeks of clouds in Melbourne, I wanted to catch the GRS and Oval BA align, and the storm in North Temperate Band (NTB). However, as you also discovered, the seeing was absolutely terrible. I'm running through my captures now, but probably won't get anything worth keeping.
We've been pretty lucky recently in Melbourne with good seeing, I'd almost forgotten what poor seeing looks like. That's a 3rd opinion for you 
Andrew |
Thanks Andrew, I've had one or two good nights this year but haven't had the fun you've been having! You've been very busy from what I've seen and you have produced some great images too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brettd
Nice image!
I took one at about the same time, and it looks very similar to yours ... unfortunately I am also close to a house, and am so new to this I still can't tell if seeing is good or bad.
Thanks for the seeing reports Andrew & Stephan ... I always like hearing from more experienced eyes how it was, and if that was terrible ... I can't wait for some good seeing.
Brett
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Thanks Brett, yours came up well too and looks very similar to what I got so you will be very happy when you get a good night of seeing. Hopefully with Mars getting larger as it approaches opposition, it will coincide with some favourable weather conditions to match!
