I need convincing....

[Scotty27]

Hey guys,

so I woke up in the middle of the night last night (around 3am) and looked out of the window, the sky was so clear and the stars so bright, it really looked amazing.

Is there a big difference in viewing experience if you view at this time compared with say 10-11pm at night when it isn't pitch black?

If it makes a good bit of difference I will make the effort and set my alarm this weekend I think

[Demonperformer]

My personal experience is that the air is less turbulent in the early morning. The earth is heated during the day and gives off heat after sunset, causing turbulence in the air. By this time of the morning, it seems to have reached equilibrium and it seems stiller. But that is just my opinion.

HTH

[ScubaMike]

My personal experience is that the air is less turbulent in the early morning. The earth is heated during the day and gives off heat after sunset, causing turbulence in the air. By this time of the morning, it seems to have reached equilibrium and it seems stiller. But that is just my opinion.

HTH

I have read this elsewhere.

Certainly there is less twinkling early morning (I get up at about 4:30 each morning and always have a peek out).

This morning was stunningly clear.

[Demonperformer]

Of course, an equally important issue is when what you want to observe is around. If you want to follow Mars through M44, you are going to have to get up and observe in the early morning. No amount of waiting until M44 is around in the evening will help

[Keiran]

I believe it is much better in the dark of the night.... I do more imaging than observing these days, but you really notice the differece with a little LP whether that is natural light or from the city. And as John said, the sky is much stiller... Them cooler early mornings (1am on) just above freezing, i have had my best views of the universe.

Its not all down to the light, but the temperature, just make sure its not too low some times you end up with a frozen fog/mist which makes viewing rubbish.

[Scotty27]

Thanks guys, that makes sense. I will give it a try this weekend, I have just collimated my lens' too so am hoping to see a bit more detail on Jupiter than I did last weekend.

[Keiran]

Well good luck with the weather and hope you have fun

[James]

I personally prefer the early hours of the morning. The air often seems stiller it's a little quieter and in built up areas there's usually less lights on.

James

[kev]

When Im up at night having a coffee and painkiller, I can usually be found on our back patio with bins / spotting scope (and black cat). I get to see things so much better around 3ish, sometimes its just stunning.

[Polar Bear]

I would agree with what others have said about atmospheric conditions.

In my instance my garden is quite 'hemmed' in so after about 1.00am there is a big difference as all my neighbours bedroom lights are off.

The loss of a few hundred watts of bedside lights through curtains makes all the difference.

Paul

[JimStan]

I have attended many of our club's private "star parties", which usually break up around 12:30 am. The few stalwarts that hang around later, often report that the skies became remarkably transparent and the "seeing" was excellent because they stayed til a much later hour!

To bad that so many of us have our "personal clocks" wired into the daylight hours. I suspect that those who work the "graveyard shift" probably have many more nights of good seeing than us "daytimers". Their weekends can be spent all night long, under the stars ! They are normally awake those hours, anyway.

Jim S