Windy nights ?

[Dazraz]

Hi just a quickie - Does a windy night make it harder to view as i was trying to view jupiter tonight and the picture was blurry from time - strong winds ?

[lighty89]

Not to sure mate, im new here, I was trying to have a look, got sort of close, saw the 4 moons around it slightly, zoomed in a little more and it kept blurring.

[Dazraz]

Not to sure mate, im new here, I was trying to have a look, got sort of close, saw the 4 moons around it slightly, zoomed in a little more and it kept blurring.

yes same problem here !

[John]

The wind is a factor, especially if you have a "fat" scope like a newtonian or a cassegrain. "thin" refractors are less affected as there is less surface area for the wind to buffet.

There are also a number of other factors that affect the steadiness of the views - seeing conditions, heat rising from the ground and surrounding buildings etc, etc. With Jupiter these are all magnified by the planets relatively low elevation this year - we are looking though more atmosphere than when it's higher in the sky !

It's also worth making sure your scope is properly cooled - which can take up to 2 hours for some scope designs.

I find you get occasional glimpses of the details that your scope can deliver - these only last a few seconds but are worth the perserverance to glimpse.

Dropping the magnification can help a lot - I rarely use over 200-250x even with my 12" scope.

John

[Whippy]

Strong wind can be an issue especially with large and/or long scopes both visually and imaging. I decided early on this evening that it's too windy to use my ED120 for imaging tonight and plumped for my far smaller Zenithstar 66 as it offers much less wind resistance.

Tony..

EDIT: What John said!

[Nick R]

i live right on the coast and find the wind is my biggest problem ,well after the cloud cover

[david o]

Hi there,

Wind can cause that blurriness at higher magnification you've been getting.

This short article on the Cloudy Nights forum explains it a lot better than I can: The Atmosphere & Observing - A Guide to Astronomical Seeing.

EDIT: Sound advice from John.

Clear skies.

[Deneb]

Yep, there's some strong gusts out there tonight, thats why I opted for my WO 66SD.