Wind

[Whippy]

I've got a nice clear sky above my head, stars are starting to shine, but I'm wondering if it's worth me setting up. Why? It's a touch windy. The met office is saying the wind is about 7mph, but I reckon it's more 10-15mph in gusts. Obviously it's going to affect the seeing, especially in a reflector.

Given that other factors would make conditions an average nights seeing, how much wind, roughly, would affect viewing objects noticeably worse? And I'm guessing it would affect reflectors more so than 'fracs and SCT's being of an open tube design. Would I be right in making that assumption and if any how much of a difference?

Ta muchly,

Tony..

[MartinB]

Depends a bit on your observing site Tony wind generally improves seeing. Still, convecting air is the real enemy. Obviously if you are in a hollow surrounded by trees with the wind swirling round things might not be great.

A bigger problem is the stability of your kit. 16" reflector on Eq1 - bad. ZS66 on ParamountME - good. I've imaged with an ED120 on a Vixen GPDX in a F6 (>18mph) before and just about got away with it

[Whippy]

Really? I would have thought it would have made it worse. I live at the end of a close, so my back garden is surrounded by gardens and their respective houses on three sides and two tall-ish trees on the other. I'm not if the wind whistles around worse because of that...

16" reflector on EQ1, I'd LOVE to see that! I think my C8N on the old CG5 is fairly sturdy, I've been out in slight gusts and it didn't move a touch.

Tony..

[Astroman]

Martin is right. Straight line movement of air is not so much the problem as the buffeting a telescope takes. That's why I built the Pieramyd-it's practically immovable in even high winds. The seeing mostly improves when there's steady movement in the air. One visit to Kitt Peak or Mauna Kea will prove it to you!

[Whippy]

I'd love to visit the Hawaiian islands anyways AM, the obs would be a big fat cherry on top .

Thanks for that Martin, I'll remember that for next time. My grasp on elementary science is clearly more elemental than I thought, sorry bad pun alert! :shock:....

Tony..

[saturn5]

Martin,is F6 not between 25 and 31 mph,i know you said >18mph but theres a big difference between imaging at F5(19-24mph)and F6,i doubt if you could get away witht it when the wind is near 30mph,unless your in an obbo

[Astroman]

Isn't that spelled, "oboe"? Oh wait, sorry, never mind.... :insects1:

[MartinB]

Martin,is F6 not between 25 and 31 mph,i know you said >18mph

Ooops!! sorry, meant F5

[saturn5]

No probs,its blowing F9 today so never mind about the telescope moving,i'm trying to keep the shed from moving

[The Warthog]

My back garden is surrounded by a 6' fence, and even when Environment Canada says teh wind is up to 15km/h, it's fairly quiet in back of my house. I've seen a Celestron 9.25 on the steel tripod shaking in what I considered a fairly light wind, bout 10km/hr. I was a bit put off by that. There's usually some wind about.

AM, do you know that Glenn Miller called an oboe "an ill wind that nobody blows good?" I laughed for days when I heard that.