Astronomy Buff

Start of the Observing Season

by Tony on October 1st, 2007

I usually consider the time around the autumnal equinox as the start of my observing season. The skies are getting steadier because the temperatures are dropping, the nights are getting longer and, generally, the skies have fewer clouds in the early evening hours.

In Colorado, the spring and summer months are have terrible sky conditions; the weather patterns just make observing with telescopes almost not worth it. The days usually start with clear skies, but as the atmosphere heats up, afternoon and evening thunderstorms develop which make observing difficult for obvious reasons.

Even if thunderstorms don’t develop in the evening, the sky is so turbulent from the day’s heating that the seeing is almost never better than 7 arcseconds.

With all of the above going on, coupled with the fact that the nights are shorter, I usually only go out a few times a month during the summertime. It is right about now that I start gearing up for my observing runs.

The winter months are the best for observing around here, with the limiting factor being finding a nice, dark sky more than atmospheric seeing. Sadly, light pollution is a problem all year long.

The absolute BEST times to observe are just after we’ve had a big cold front move in (hopefully with lots of snow). The night following a huge, very cold snowstorm leaves the atmosphere very steady, almost no noticeable twinkling of stars.

Of course, it’s so cold that my nose hairs freeze, but oh man the Orion Nebula is breathtaking.

Image Credit: James B. Kaler

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