Blue Mountains -Katoomba Airfield, 16th or 23rd of June?

[erick (Eric)]

meeting all weekend

Enjoy yourselves.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Originally Posted by Steffen

I can bring some wood, what do we need for that heater - kindling, logs, hotrox?

Cheers
Steffen.

Just the fire wood is fine. I called Rod and there is plenty of kindling up there.

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Have a great night chaps, won't be able to make it.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

I can't make it!

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

Sad. I'm working

[vic4loc (Victor)]

Steffen & his son, James and myself turned up. It was a beautiful clear night, but wind was howling which made viewing pretty bad, imaging was out of the question.

It was cold! the wind chilled me to the bone. I came with my ski outfit, but only a track pants with thermo, but was still so cold. At around 10pm, we decided to pack up & go home.

Thank you to James who let me view through his C11 and those magnificent Televue eye pieces

Victor.

[Steffen]

I enjoyed the night as well. The wind didn't seem to bother my 6" Mak (or myself) much at all, but I would have wished for somewhat better transparency and seeing. However, with so few clear moonless Saturday nights lately (and I really mean in the last year or so) I was grateful for what I got.

None of us were prepared to fix up Rod for the privilege of using the site, we'll have to make that up next time somehow.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Rat]

Originally Posted by Steffen

I would have wished for somewhat better transparency and seeing.

Hi Guy's
I hope to make it out there with you all one of these nights maybe when the weather gets warmer.


I am only new to all this so trying to lean as much as I can.
Can you tell me what you mean by “better transparency”
I would just like to lean what other elements can affect the viewing.
So even though the night was clear of clouds there was some other element effecting the transparency? or was it the wind ?

If it was the wind does it affect us by only shaking the tele or by affecting the air in some way?

I got some time off on Saturday night and went out for a look up as well and froze solid and gave up around 1:30am


Hope I am not being a pain. Thanks for any help
William

[Steffen]

Transparency basically means the blackness of the sky and limits the extent to which fainter objects are still visible. It is made worse by particles in the air (dust, mist) and light pollution.

Wind at ground level can be an issue for large or under-supported scopes if it is strong enough to shake the scope.

Turbulence in higher atmospheric layers leads to an unsteady view and makes fine details move around and go in and out of focus. That's what is referred to as seeing.

I hope this helps, I'm sure others can provide a more accurate description of the phenomena involved.

Cheers
Steffen.

[gregbradley]

Not quite:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O80...mospheric.html

It refers to the amount of light from celestial objects that arrives at your viewing location through pollutants, dust etc.

Blackness of sky would be a function of lack of light pollution.

Greg.

Originally Posted by Steffen

Transparency basically means the blackness of the sky and limits the extent to which fainter objects are still visible. It is made worse by particles in the air (dust, mist) and light pollution.

Wind at ground level can be an issue for large or under-supported scopes if it is strong enough to shake the scope.

Turbulence in higher atmospheric layers leads to an unsteady view and makes fine details move around and go in and out of focus. That's what is referred to as seeing.

I hope this helps, I'm sure others can provide a more accurate description of the phenomena involved.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Steffen]

Yes, I suppose that's true in a strict sense. I believe both phenomena go back to the same cause – pollutants in the air. Without those light pollution wouldn't matter, the street lights would just shine out into space without scattering and lighting up the whole sky.

Cheers
Steffen.