FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Weather next week

["Frank Kraljic" <FJKraljic@xxxxxxx>]

I had the scope setup on the balcony this past week and stowed it inside
literally ten minutes before a brief rain tonight.  ...Lucky me, but before
disassembling the scope, I did observe Jupiter in and out of breaks in the
clouds.  To my surprise the seeing was exceptional: close to sharp images at
1000x.

For the past couple weeks I have been comparing my location's seeing with
the Canadian Meteorological Center's Seeing Forecast
(http://www.cmc.ec.gc.ca/cmc/htmls/seeing_e.html).  Out of six sessions, the
forecast apparently corresponded with the actual seeing conditions--I used
the star diffraction pattern as a guide located on the site.  Given
tonight's surprising stability, I checked the site afterwards: the seeing
was better than what was predicted.

Of course, seven non-scientific comparisons hardly constitute a hard case
for believing in this model, but I am finding myself checking the forecast
before I decide to observe.  As a result, all but one of the six sessions
have had good seeing on the scale between a "III" and "IV" (hovering above
and below one arc-second) again corresponding with the predictions.

I plan to continue comparing my seeing estimates with the forecasts--and
actually commit the efforts to paper, as well as observe on unfavorable
predicated nights--unfortunately if Brian is correct, I won't be doing very
much observing this month.  The rain is worth it, though.

-FRANK



--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please 
send personal replies to the author, not the list.