UK Astronomical seeing and scope choice

[dweller25]

I have just been looking at the Meteoblue website ......

https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/forecast/seeing/manchester_united-kingdom_2643123?utm_source=weather_widget&utm_medium=linkus&utm_content=seeing&utm_campaign=Weather%2BWidget

And for Manchester it predicts seeing resolution is 1.2 to 1.8 arc seconds.

My 5" refractor is capable of resolving to 0.9 arc seconds.

So what will a larger aperture scope bring to the party in terms of visual planetary performance ??

 

[Tim]

Visual planetary....that's a good question. To compare a 6" to a 5" they'd have to be the same focal length wise I should think, and maybe, side by side on the same night, at the same time, the fleeting microseconds of great seeing would be interpreted by the brain and resolve some extra detail, maybe.

A high frame rate camera though will be able to acquire more, more detailed images over the course of a session against a smaller scope. Solar imaging is a prime example of this where resolution is typically much higher than the atmosphere allows, in theory. The best solar images come from larger instruments with noticable improvement inch by inch.

That's my theory anyhow