Countryside observing

[DeanCJ]

I work away from home, in fact have done for more than twenty five years. My wife and I have a static caravan on the Lincolnshire coast so this is where most of our observing is done.

last August we were trying to view Jupiter and Saturn l know that being low on the horizon they were not best placed, but we were really struggling to achieve decent focus and both planets had a strange yellow cast to them. In the end I was convinced that I had somehow damaged my scope (a 127 Mak) so we brought everything home to West Yorkshire and the views were almost perfect.

My question for anyone who lives in the countryside is this- has anyone experienced poor seeing conditions during harvest time? as the only difference between Yorkshire and Lincolnshire was the harvest was finished in Yorkshire but in full swing in Lincolnshire.

 I am assuming it may have been dust in the air but not sure, if this is the case we will just have to plan our sessions carefully.

Any comments or experiences would be appreciated.

Dean.

[Timebandit]

 

 

In summer time you do obviously have a lot more particles, pollen, dust ect in the air and this does effect seeing conditions. Obviously when viewing planets then any interference from such factors will effect these sort of targets as sharp views are required to get details from the planets. Unfortunately summer time also has a more heat turbulence that also effect viewing conditions. When the planets are lower in the sky then the atmosphere you are trying to cut through with your scope has to contend with all the above seeing conditions so much more as you have more of the earths atmosphere to cut through due to the position of the planets ,making it very difficult at times to get any sort of satisfactory viewing. When the planets are higher in the sky you then have far less of the earths atmosphere to cut through and therefore usually better seeing possible with planetary targets .  I hope this helps 

 

 

[JOC]

I live in the middle of arable farmland.  At harvest time the combines chuck so much dust into the area that we can taste it for weeks.  This certainly will impact viewing and if things are low in the sky you will already be looking through more atmosphere to see them.  Also, don't forget last year was very hot and there would have been even more dust in the air than normal as it was so dry.

[DeanCJ]

Thanks for your replies,

In the big scheme of things I am not a very clever person, so I always find it satisfying when I find a solution to a problem or an answer to a question, but it is always much better when someone else can confirm my ideas and suspicions, which you both have and given me a little more to consider.

JOC, I guess like me you’re grateful that mass stubble burning doesn’t happen anymore like it used to, when I was young it was terrible.

Once again thanks for your replies.