[AZ-Observing] Sunglow (was: Tucson Observing Sites)
- From: "polakis@xxxxxxxx" <polakis@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 11:36:14 -0500
Brian says that by all accounts the seeing is consistently poor at Sunglow.
Wil, who has observed there more than anybod=
y on this list, disagrees.
Based on my limited data, I tend to side with Brian. I counted up the number of
nights I have spent at Sunglow, which is =
now 21. I think I've been clouded out five or six times. I can remember three
of the clear nights in which I would say =
the seeing is in line with or better than low-desert sites such as Vekol or
Sentinel. On all of the others, I have been =
limited in my 10-inch and 20-inch scopes to a magnification of less than 150x
until the images become painful to look at.=
Perhaps the poor seeing doesn't reveal itself as much in the smaller
apertures or wide field astrophotos that Wil takes=
Brian pointed correctly to the mechanism behind Sunglow's unstable air. The
last thing you want is a 4000-foot rise imme=
diately to your east. Even at Vekol, I notice a predictable seeing
degradataion associated with an easterly breeze sever=
al hours into the night. It's certainly worse in the foothills of high
mountains, and that shows up in the eyepiece. I =
hope Frank Kraljic has more to say about this, as he is even more finicky about
seeing than I am.
This says nothing about transparency or darkness, which are as good as it can
be not only in the United States but on the=
planet. Go to Outback Australia, and it won't be any darker than Sunglow at
the zenith. And the transparency won't be =
as good as Sunglow, since you won't find many places at 5000 feet, which is
ideal for my tastes.
What would be interesting is a survey of practical sites of southern Arizona in
which the seeing was measured. Don't loo=
k at me.
Tom
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