[AZ-Observing] Re: Pickering Scale/Equal Magnitude Doubles

Me too.  I use a hexagon of stars that I see around Polaris which I have
been calling "Jones' Hexagon" for many years. I haven't heard any other
mention of this hexagon in the literature (except my article a while
back in the SAC newsletter), but it consists of the star delta Umi and
five other stars (the dimmest being 6.3 mag SAO 2012) in a 6 degree
hexagon around the pole star. If I can see it, that is, all six stars, I
know that everything is all right, at least in that part of the sky.
Problem is, that part of the sky could be fine and usually I am looking
quite a bit further south and, since I am (usually) concentrating on the
eyepiece view of faint galaxies, am slowly becoming a victim of the
creeping crud, losing transparency and not realizing it. This occurs
more frequently at certain times of the year, late winter for instance.

Jack Jones
Saguaro Astronomy Club
Public Events
Phoenix AZ
spicastar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Andrew said:
>
> I generally record both seeing and transparency numbers in any of my
> observations with a simple code system.  I use the format SxTx, with
> seeing on a 1-10 scale (Pickering or similar) and transparency
measured
> by naked eye magnitude by the pole using a simple magnitude series
> around Polaris.  Unless Polaris is in a cloud or a light polluted area
> of the sky, if so I can always improvise with some other part of the
sky
> with the same elevation (thus the same airmass and extinction).  Yes,
I
> know, Polaris is a long way from zenith, but this way I use the same
> field all year long and only have to remember one field.  So a typical
> observation note could be S7T5.5 or S8T6, or even S5T3 (my back yard).


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