I suggested to a friend of mine who produces a well-known Astronomy yearbook that a useful addition would be a graph showing when the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, plus the Moon, were above a certain minimum altitude. My reasoning is that I've never bothered to observe (visually) when these objects are below about 30 degrees from the horizon since the seeing is just so poor. Adding/subtracting a time to the rise/set times doesn't really work unless you live on the equator. Such a graph would help plan observing sessions.
I notice said friend is trying out a table of dark sky hours (this is the idea that triggered my suggestion for lunar and planetary enthusiasts) for deep sky observers. Before I get back to him, what are your thoughts on the matter?
Funnily enough, I couldn't help but notice that when the Moon sends the deep-sky fraternity scurrying for cover, us Lunies come out to play! Mind you, most are both, I guess.
Hi Folks,
Funnily enough, I couldn't help but notice that when the Moon sends the deep-sky fraternity scurrying for cover, us Lunies come out to play! Mind you, most are both, I guess.
Geoff Mc
A-H-A not me... that moon is evil, positively wicked even.
Geoff from an imaging point of view. Most would say that 45 degrees and above is optimum. However, last Mars apparition was a lot lower than that and yet we still got good images.
So as a rule I would say 45 degrees is best, but 30 degrees will still show detail.
that moon is evil, positively wicked even. 
