FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Great Night

[Jeff Hopkins <phxjeff@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Indeed it may have been transient.

There were clouds around earlier and since I came in early they may 
have come back. I have found that there have been "holes" in the 
weather that provide excellent seeing. These may not last all night, 
but do provide several hours worth of great seeing.

There seems to be something about Phoenix that despite the light 
pollution many times there seems to be a bubble over it. Within this 
bubble the seeing is excellent, just a bright sky. I do most of my 
photometry close to the zenith so I have a good idea of the 
extinction each night such as tonight/last night by just seeing how 
the comparison star reading vary nightly. Last night the reading were 
the highest I've seen in a long time and sky readings the lowest. I 
was also surprised at seeing additional stars on my monitor for the 
guide scope that I have not seen before. At first I thought they were 
hot pixels, but they moved with the guide star.

Jeff

At 00:32 -0700 2/20/06, Brian Skiff wrote:
>>>   Tonight - Sunday, was an exceptional night. Exceptional transparency...
>
>      This must have been rather transient, since now (12.30a) it is
>obviously cirrusy over PHX.  Still "dry snow clouds" in Flagstaff.
>
>\Brian

-- 
Jeff Hopkins
HPO SOFT
http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html
Hopkins Phoenix Observatory
7812 West Clayton Drive
Phoenix, Arizona 85033-2439 U.S.A.
www.hposoft.com
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please 
send personal replies to the author, not the list.