I don't know, AJ. But then, don't forget Gumperson's Inverse Square Law = of New Optical Systems, which states that when an amateur buys a new = optical unit (telescope, finder scope, eyepiece, binos, etc.) that there = will be awful seeing centered on his location for a radius in km equal = to the square of the aperture of the gizmo in cm; this awful seeing will = continue for as many days as cm of the objective. =20 Example: AJ buys a new 20 cm scope. He can expect to have 20 nights of = bad seeing, and this mess will cover a circle 400 km in radius centered = over AJ's house. Friedrich von Gumperson developed this law after living next to William = Herschel for thirty years. DH (tongue in cheek) -----Original Message----- From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx = [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of AJ Crayon Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 10:25 AM To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Weather in AZ It seems Dick has motivated Tom to come up with some interesting data.=20 Something I've come to enjoy. While the numbers from Tom's analysis = seem to=20 indicate we have had better weather than what we believe, I think we are = missing some part of the discussion. That part has to do with nights = when=20 most of us are able to get out with our telescopes. Normally this is = one or=20 two weekends per month and not the entire month. It is this kind of = weekend=20 where the weather has an impact on our hobby. Yet the data doesn't seem = to=20 reach this level of detail - does it? Clear skies, aj ----- Original Message -----=20 From: "Tom Polakis" <tpolakis@xxxxxxx> To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 9:07 AM Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Weather in AZ --- Richard Harshaw <rharshaw2@xxxxxxx> wrote: > I'm not a big fan of the "man is causing global warming" scare-- I = think=20 > it > is more likely due to solar activity and natural planetary cycles. = But=20 > one > does wonder if this may not be due to a global climate change? I am a big fan of analyzing data, and drawing conclusions from it, as=20 everybody on this list should be. If I am not intimately involved in a=20 particular discipline such as climatology, I trust the conclusions of = the=20 science community more than anybody. The recent cloudiness in Arizona hasn't been any more than slightly = below=20 average. Brian Skiff has been gathering cloudiness data for Flagstaff = since=20 1980 (http://www.lowell.edu/Research/cloudiness_data/clouds.html), and i = have the yearly data plotted through 2006 here. http://members.cox.net/tpolakis/astro/clouds1.jpg You can see that there really was no "golden age" when it was always = clear=20 in Arizona. Now look at this monthly plot of average with 1-sigma standard = deviation. http://members.cox.net/tpolakis/astro/clouds3.jpg Typical number of "clear" nights for for Winter are: December: 11 +/- 4 January: 10.5 +/- 4 What we have so far for 2007-08 (assuming cloudy nights through the rest = of=20 January) are: December: 8 January: 7 So you could say that this Winter storm season has been worse than = average=20 for observing, but only slightly so. Tom -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and = please send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and = please=20 send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.