Hey all,
I live in an apartment so getting out under the stars requires travel and setup, even if it's only to the park down the road, so it would be good to optimise my viewing opportunities by getting a handle optimal weather conditions. And I figure if I'm in the car anyway, now lockdown has ended, I could do a lot better than an inner city park surrounded by miles of houses.
Now if I'm after dark skies, that's pretty simple; get out of the city. But if I'm looking for good seeing, that would seem to imply different demands from an observing site.
Given that absolute darkness is not necessary for planetary work, I could possibly find a spot a lot closer than the ASV site up at Heathcote.
So these are the thoughts I've been having.
- Looking across tarmac and rooftops is bad, so viewing planets that are kind of north-ish in the sky, from *south of the city is probably not the best; Get out of suburbia which for me means heading out Geelong way.
- Laminar Airflow is important for seeing. Ideally you want a sheet of air coming at you that has not had to wind its way over obstacles or bodies that are radiating heat. An onshore breeze is good as the air is coming in off the flat ocean - but you don't want to be *at the shore because of the salt in the air (bad for optics). This means a gentle southerly breeze is best, when viewed across a flat plain a little way inland.
- Any land mass is going to re-radiate heat at night. if you can get above that 'boundary layer' of turbulence, you'll have better seeing; Find a hillside that faces south.
- Jetstream. it moves around a lot, but do southerlies help shift it up to more northerly latitudes so we can peek out underneath it?
So based on the above, I'm thinking a hillside somewhere out near the You-Yangs might work. Am I crazy? Well yes I am, thanks for asking - but am I crazy in this particular aspect?
Cheers
Markus