Good seeing?

[Phil-lost!]

After much searching i recently found my first dso, m13 which looked like a small smudge, then the next night i looked again and it looked like a small smudge with sparkles in it! Is this "good seeing"? Also i only have the standard lenses so i was wondering what differences I'll see if i upgrade, do things become clearer? Any help would be great because i dont know whether to get a telrad (im having real trouble with the mirror image in the finder) or upgrade my lenses.

[Ganymede12]

Out of interest, what scope were you using?

[Phil-lost!]

Its a standard skywatcher 200p with standard lenses.

[swamp thing]

Hi

"Seeing" is the steadiness off the air.

"Transparency" is the clearness of the air.

It would seem from your post what you noticed was an increase in transparency.

The two aren't linked im afraid. Nights with the steadiest seeing when planetary images are at their very best are often those where transparency is awfull and deep sky objects are tough.

Nights with great transparency when deep sky stuff is at its best are often those with strong thermals that'll wreck your planetary views.

Nights where the two are great are like hens teeth.

[Ganymede12]

You mean the Skyliner 200P? That's the scope I hope to upgrade to! I think that "good seeing" is your own opinion but generally I think it's minimal light pollution and low wind turbulence making the views still and clear.

Edit: It would seem that swamp thing beta me to the punch! Just as well as it looks like I was misinformed any way.

[Phil-lost!]

No its the explorer 200p, but to be honest i think i should have bought the skyliner, i found the eq mount confusing to start off, took me a while to get to grips with it! Ive never heard of transparency before, good to know, thanks.

[Tinker1947]

Tonight isn't to bad, but not great, and there's a bright Moon out there that's gonna get worst for the next few days, but i did find M56 which is a Mag 9 and in the Wide EP was the faintest of grey smudges...so its not all bad...

[umadog]

With higher powers and darker skies you will see more stars in M13 with your scope. Good stuff!