does height make a diffrence

[daniel-lloydw]

ok strange question.

Does height or alttatude help when sky watching.... you see to me the answer is yes, your closer to the stars but then I think well we are talking 400 million miles, whats a few hundred feet.

I have a huge mountain just behing my house and has some great views. is it worth going up there one night?

cheers in advance

[dtr42]

its more to do with air quality as the higher you go up the thinner the atmosphere and so the viewing may be clearer the air is also more stable as well getting out the murk of lp etc so would be worth a try with binoculars first to save you humphing a scope up the mountain

[Ags]

There are no huge mountains in the UK. Sorry! If you go up a couple of thousand meters you start to see a difference.

[Earl]

Less atmosphere is always better !

You will notice all the big observatory's are built on the top of mountains.

[LukeSkywatcher]

How tall is the mountain behind your house?

If it is say 1000ft (300m?) above sea level (not sure that qualifies it as a mountain..............more of a hill) it could be worth going up and trying it out.

I dont think the UK or Ireland has anything that comes close to being called a mountain. We have some big hills though.

[dtr42]

would imaine anything above 300m would be better than sea level and at 1000m would be better again

[Ags]

Don't forget it will be a lot windier on the high moors...

[sologuitarist61]

Also, the higher up you are the sooner you can see what is coming up over the horizon.

[JamesF]

Yes, unless you live in the middle of a big city (and if you live near a mountain I think that's unlikely I can't really see going up a mountain is going to help with air quality, but it may well get you above some of the light pollution and give you less obstructed views of the horizon which would be helpful if you want to hunt down some of the more southerly Messier objects.

James

[LukeSkywatcher]

Yes, unless you live in the middle of a big city (and if you live near a mountain I think that's unlikely I can't really see going up a mountain is going to help with air quality, but it may well get you above some of the light pollution and give you less obstructed views of the horizon which would be helpful if you want to hunt down some of the more southerly Messier objects.

James

You summed that up perfectly and it was how i was thinking but didnt put into words.

Up a hill away/above from most of the LP will definitely help. The quality of the air may be slightly better also because you are out of the town etc...........but air quality wont improve by much.

Every little helps.

[laser_jock99]

A lot depends on local conditions. Sometimes an inversion layer

http://en.wikipedia....on_(meteorology)

can trap smog & haze close to the ground. Similarly low mist and fog can hamper the lower level observer. In these cases a few hundred feet might make a lot of difference. We live at 1400 feet and frequently find we are looking down on a mist layer in the mornings

Light Pollution from direct sources is also likely to be less up your mountain. Whether it's worth lugging all your gear up there is up to you!

[JamesF]

Gorgeous photograph

We're at barely 400 feet and still see mist below us on occasional mornings. Perhaps if you live in an area where the geography traps mist and murk you'd not have to climb that high to see some improvement. I imagine some of the Welsh valleys could well be like that, whereas hill ranges that tend to form a single line might not.

James

[LukeSkywatcher]

Light Pollution from direct sources is also likely to be less up your mountain. Whether it's worth lugging all your gear up there is up to you!

The best test would be to go up the "mountain" and take a look with the naked eye. If you see more stars and they are brighter then they are from your house, then it is worth taking your scope up and observing.

[Qualia]

What I've noticed in Spain - which after Switzerland appears to be the seond most mountainous country in Europe - isn't so much the height you're reaching but of the general quality of atmosphere. The trouble I've found with mountainous areas is the promise of battle one will have with mist, clouds, fog, dew forming and the such at night and the unpredictability of the forecast. Personally, I prefer the desert or arid lands in Spain, they're more predictable, less light polluted, cool relatively quicker, there's no hick-up with dew and even when they're within 20km or 30kms of big cities, on an average night, you're still getting down to about 6 or 7 visible star magnitude which cannot be said of your average evening in a mountain.

[JamesF]

We're a bit short of deserts in the UK though, especially after this summer

James

[umadog]

Sure it makes a difference. For years the Lick observatory was out-performing everyone else because it had the altitude, good weather, and steady skies which other observatories couldn't match.

[ollypenrice]

I'm at 900 metres (3000 feet) and that is certainly enough to make a difference, partly becuase we are (usually!!) above the inversion layer which forms regularly in spring and autumn. The lowest atmosphere is the densest so diminishing returns set in as you go very high.

But there's a 'but!' The danger in mainland europe of going to a mountaintop is that you look down on 360 degrees of light pollution. Our site, though high, is in a crater of surrounding hills which baffle the horizons and exclude any nearby LP. Back in the UK my darkest site was in an old quarry, not on the higher ground around it.

Olly

[JamesF]

I've also noticed when skiing in the Alps that once you start to get up around 1000m you can actually see the moisture, pollution and dirt causing a haze over the towns in the valleys below. There aren't many places in the UK where you can get up 1000m though and I'm not sure any of them are near large population centres.

James

[daniel-lloydw]

thanks for your help guys