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Thanks Gary,
I have a book called 'Planetary Astronomy' by Christophe Pellier which goes into some detail. He mentions laminar air-flow and layer mixing. I can't remember him saying much about the thickness of the atmosphere itself, but I guess that's because by itself it doesn't have much impact compared to the other factors. After reading it I spent a lot of time flying around my local area in Virtual Reality Google Earth looking for the ideal spot, where the laminar air from the plains meets more or less the first hill. It's not easy to find a spot like that which is open to the public at night, but where you're also not likely to be disturbed.
City's are a heat-sink though. Getting out of the city is half the battle - it's a bubble of bad air. For planetary it doesn't have to be a dark sky site, it just needs good seeing.
Cheers
Markus
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