[AEAJR (Ed)]

I live on Long Island, about 25 air miles East of Manhattan, NYC. I think I am living on the edge of the haze that hangs over the NYC area.

It seems that no matter how clear the sky appears, no matter how good the seeing is, bright objects like Jupiter, Mars and Venus always have a kind of a glow around them and I get a cross pattern in the eyepiece. In my 38 and 25 mm eyepieces, under 50X, where the moon does not fill the view I get some of this but it is not as noticeable and it does not show up in the few camera phone pictures I have taken.

At first I thought it was my eyes, but new glasses have not eliminated the glow and the cross. Feels like here is dirt on the lens but I don't think that is the case.

It is consistent across all eyepieces and in both of my scopes. So I am presuming this is not an anomaly of the optics or a collimation thing.

I have tried various filters but they do not eliminate the issue.

It is not as noticeable when looking at stars or clusters, but it is still there.

Should I assume that I am just looking through a less than transparent atmosphere even when the sky looks clear?



How about you other city and close suburb folks? Do you see this too?

Any advice on how to minimize this effect?