Quote:
Originally Posted by UK1
Hi All
I have just got back from Northern Beaches of Cairns in Queensland……. As we are thinking of moving there from Melbourne we were looking around at houses, I was also taking in the orientation of the garden for the telescope.
What I did notice and I was in dark places was the lack of stars I could see. I could see more in Melbourne any reason please  or am I going blind
Thanks all |
Humidity and/or smoke would be the culprit. You might not think it's humid but the upper atmosphere up here at this time of year usually carried a very thin high level haze which plays havoc with seeing at times. And, as some of the others have mentioned, you can also get smoke from the council burn offs and some of the canegrowers who still burn off at the beginning of the season. However, you'll find out soon enough just how useless it is trying to observe up here during the late spring and summer. It'll be even worse in Cairns than what it is where I live, in Townsville. They get more rain up that way. At this time of the year, days can be pretty clear of cloud, only to have it cloud over during the night time. Most of our rain happens of a night.
That haze I was telling you about....it sends the sky grey quite often, instead of being blue. Or, it will be a very washed out blue looking sky.
.
