seeing / transparency ?

[knobby]

Can anyone give a sensible plain understandable explanation of seeing / transparency.

Apparently the seeing tonight is good but the transparency is poor

Thanks

[MartinB]

Transparency is how clear the sky is. Seeing is how steady it is.

Good transparency occurs when the air is dry with no high cloud or mist in the atmosphere. Often this can produce a lot of air currents as the temperature falls rapidly leading to poor seeing. Atmospheric turbulence is what causes stars to twinkle and limits high power observing or imaging because the target wobbles and moves in and out of focus

[knobby]

Thanks Martin ... quick, concise and sensible.

many thanks.

[iwatkins]

Nice one Martin, don't think I could do it in less words

And to Knobby, or anyone else, great set of links to seeing/trans descriptions: Understanding Atmospheric Seeing

Cheers

Ian

[knobby]

Thanks Ian