Seasonal differences in seeing

[West End Wendy]

Am I right in suggesting the seeing for planetary observing is better in the warmer months?

I've had some lovely sharp, steady views of Saturn recently, and I don't remember my views of Jupiter in the Autumn/Winter (when I bought my scope) being nearly as good?

Tim.

[Httetal]

I thought that the winter was suppossed to be better for 2 reasons:

1) The earth hasn't heated up as much during the day, therefore there is less disturbance when it cools at night.

2) In the winter the planets will be higher in the sky -as at night they are in the constellations where we find the sun in summer. Therefore we are looking through less atmosphere at them.

I'm quite new to this still so there maybe other reasons I've not considered though...

My guess is that you're improving your skills.

[AndyH]

In my opinion, you generally seem to get better seeing in late spring/summer/early autumn, but better transparancy in the rest of the year.

That's a general view and there are always exceptions.

That's what I've noticed over the years, certainly where I am.

Andy.

[West End Wendy]

My guess is that you're improving your skills.

Yes I think that's definitely a factor.

I guess I was also thinking that when it stays relatively warm at night the earth is losing less heat as the sun sets and thus there's less turbulence in the atmosphere. (Excuse my dodgy science).

Good point about altitude of the ecliptic though.

[Httetal]

It also occurred to me that at this time of year we probably have the smallest changes between day and night temperatures.