bad 'seeing'

[JohnDenim]

Not too many clouds out tonight, so thought I'd get togged up and head out.

Left scope out for about, 45 minutes before viewing.

Trouble was, there is a bright orange hue in every direction this evening, it's not usually there?

I live in a fairly low light polluted area, 10 Miles or so out of Mansfield.

What's causing this light/effect?

Albeit It's rather annoying that there is a car brakers yard with high power lights on ALL night, (a couple of streets behind my house If that makes sense ) but they are always there.

Atmosphere, or are the cold conditions reacting with the god awful orange street lamps?

Have I just acquired a new pet hate in the form of light pollution?

And don't get me started on unnecessary security lights that stay on for 3 hours if a cat walks through it's path!

[redfox1971]

ive got a big woodyard about 100 yards away that have big bright orange lights left on all night,like you say some nights you cant see the orange glow,then next night it shows.

[rowan46]

the light effect is caused by cloud/mist you would probably be able to see stars through the mist but theres just enough water in the air to reflect a lot of the street lighting

[ollypenrice]

Not sure how dark you can hope to be within ten miles of Mansfield. (I taught in Sutton for twenty five years for my many sins...) No, seriously, if the air is damp the LP climbs and spreads. When it is dry it does so much much less.

Olly

[Talitha]

John, i agree with rowan76... your transparency was probably poor. Bad transparency is caused by air particles, and bad seeing is caused by atmospheric disturbances that make things in the eyepiece look like they're trembling or boiling.

Sometimes i wonder how we can see anything out there at all.

[JohnDenim]

Not sure how dark you can hope to be within ten miles of Mansfield. I taught in Sutton for twenty five years for my many sins.

Olly

Thanks everyone, and thanks Olly. (well done on the POtW BTW!)

What a coincidence.

Sutton is about 2 miles from me.

I thought I was reasonably dark?

Not too close to any major cities.

I suppose even small town areas are considered 'light polluted'

These days.

If you every fancy coming back to teach I have a lovely camp bed you could sleep on...

[JohnDenim]

And thanks to Talitha, I feel privileged to have help from the seasoned pro's!

[Talitha]

And thanks to Talitha, I feel privileged to have help from the seasoned pro's!

Glad to be able to help, John.

[Moonshane]

I think LP is very relative. I live within 10 miles of Manchester and four miles of Stockport - a massive city and a large town. I am lucky though that my garden faces east and that way is the Peak District and Manchester and Stockport are to the west and NW of me, behind my house.

plus on my estate, gardens back onto gardens so I have a bit of a dark patch behind my house which helps and I can see plenty of reasonably faint targets on good nights (and there's always moon, planets and doubles when it's not a good night!). that said, when you have good transparency you'll have a darker sky than me but not as dark as say Olly or Carol.

I agree with others that LP is worse when there's moisture in the air.

[Rob L]

That's interesting. I'm a long way from Mansfield (Ringwood in Hants), but I too had an orange glow on the horizon last night that I haven't seen before. I put it down to being out a bit earlier than normal.

I've only had a scope since Christmas though, so I don't have much experience of the variations in light conditions.

[Daz Type-R]

Hi.

I`m not far from you, live in Hucknall (7 miles away ish) and I noticed last night it was very orangy!!! Do you get many good dark skys much, I`m a newbie and just takeing this up.

Regards,

Daz.