winter viewing??

[starstalker]

ok with winter coming everyone seems to be get excited,but i was wondering apart from obviously it getting darker earlier and the atmosphere being cooler why is winter viewing better than summer, is it there is more to see?

[russ]

Not sure why everyone is getting excited. Going by the past 8 years, Autumn/Winter usually brings with it 4-5 months of solid cloud with less than a handful of clear nights. Roll on spring!!!!!

[eddy]

More steady nights, clearer nights (mainly on the clear nights lol) More to see IMO, seeing and transparency are far better in the winter, its darker nights, darker for longer. Thats just my views though

Eddy

[brantuk]

Summer there is hardly any real dark sky - what is there dissapears pretty quick - 3 to 4 hrs only of real dark if lucky. Winter is darker longer and you don't get heat haze from heavy atmosphere ruining the seeing. So you'll see a lot more dso's and imaging hours of long exposures becomes possible.

[brantuk]

This site has a very good diagram explaining "insolation" :

Sky View Cafe - Astronomy - Star Charts and Ephemeris

It's also a nice little planetarium that runs in a java window

[Talitha]

I've never found the winter sky to be steadier than any other season, but the air seems cleaner and there's lots more viewing time.