Understanding Atmospheric Seeing

A Survey of Online Articles

 

"Beating the Seeing", Alan M. MacRobert

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/diy/3304176.html

An excellent article with tips on things you can do to improve seeing conditions.

 

"A Scale of Seeing"

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/basics/3305911.html

Briefly discusses a Scale for evaluating seeing introduced by William H. Pickering at Harvard Observatory at the turn of the 19th century.

 

"The Pickering Seeing Scale", Damian Peach

http://www.damianpeach.com/pickering.htm

Damian Peach has annotated the Pickering Seeing Scale with animations.

 

"Simulated Seeing Animations", Damian Peach

http://www.damianpeach.com/seeingscale.htm

Another excellent animation of seeing effects using Jupiter as the target.

 

"The Atmosphere and Observing - A guide to Astronomical seeing", Damian Peach

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=555

Another good article showing how topography and weather affect seeing.

 

"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.....How the Stars do Sparkle.... Evaluating Seeing Conditions", Jack Schmidling

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=587

Another good discussion of the Pickering scale and how it is effected by aperture.

 

"Seeing forecast for astronomical purposes", Canadian Meteorological Centre

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/astro/seeing_e.html

From the folks who bring us the Clear Sky Clocks. There is a nice animation to help you evaluate your seeing.

 

"Canada/USA Astronomical Seeing Observation Program"

http://cleardarksky.com/so/

A brief article defining seeing and its causes. You have an opportunity to participate by contributing your seeing observations.

 

"Seeing Conditions and Transparency", Dr. P. Clay Sherrod, Arkansas Sky Observatory

http://www.weasner.com/etx/buyer-newuser-tips/seeing.html

Dr. Clay does an excellent job differentiating between transparency and seeing. Some nice star charts are given to aid in determining transparency in terms of visual limiting magnitude. Dr. Clay also gives some down to earth methods of evaluating seeing as well.

 

"Astronomical Seeing", Jeff Beish

http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/Observing_Mars_8.html

A very detailed article on seeing, the different atmospheric layers, evaluation, and optimal observatory location.

 

"Astronomy and Atmosphere", Deepsky Observers Companion, Auke Slotegraaf

http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/borley/49/atmosph.htm

This article gives a good but brief overview of atmospheric seeing conditions.

 

"Astronomical seeing", Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_seeing

A good wikipedia article on astronomical seeing.

 

"Astronomical seeing", Astro-Tom

http://www.astro-tom.com/telescopes/seeing.htm

A brief article providing a seeing scale.

 

"Exceptional astronomical seeing conditions above Dome C in Antarctica", Jon S. Lawrence, et.al.

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/nature/

An excellent article published in Nature magazine Vol 431 Sept. 16, 2004 detailing why Dome C in Antartica may be the best location for a land based observatory.

 

"Astronomical seeing from the summits of the Antarctic plateau", R. D. Marks

http://www.aanda.org/index.php?option=article&access=standard&Itemid=129&url=/articles/aa/pdf/2002/13/aa2084.pdf

An earlier article on the excellent seeing in the Antartic.

 

"The Intrinsic Seeing Quality at the WHT Site", ING

http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/development/hap/dimm.html

An article on how to measure seeing with the Differential Image Motion Seeing Monitor (DIMM).

 

"Astronomical Seeing", Ron Thorkildson

http://rosecityastronomers.org/resources/see_general.htm

An article on forecasting seeing based on meteorological parameters.

 

"Relating Seeing Quality To Meteorological Conditions", D. Andre Erasmus

http://dip.sun.ac.za/~rooyen/overfsee.htm

Another excellent article showing that seeing conditions are linked to meteorological parameters.

 

"Astronomical Seeing", Chris Lord

http://www.brayebrookobservatory.org/BrayObsWebSite/HOMEPAGE/forum/Astronomical%20Seeing.html

An excellent article on seeing which differentiates scintillation from oscillation.

 

"The RASC Calgary Centre - Atmospheric "Seeing"", Larry McNish

http://calgary.rasc.ca/seeing.htm

A very good overall reference site of seeing topics.

 

"Long-Term Periodic Behavior in the Subarcsecond Seeing at Mount Wilson Observatory", Scott W. Teare and Laird A. Thompson

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/338064

A study of the variations of the seeing at Mt. Wilson Observatory and its implications for observatory site selection.

 

Jet Stream Forecasts

The following URLs can be used to keep track of what the Jet Stream is doing over the North American continent:

http://www.weatherimages.org/data/imag192.html

http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/aviation/sundayusjetstream_large.html

http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/aviation/mondayusjetstreamforecast_large.html

http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/aviation/tuesdayusjetstream_large.html

http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/aviation/wednesdayusjetstream_large.html

http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/aviation/thursdayusjetstream_large.html

http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/aviation/fridayusjetstream_large.html

http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/aviation/saturdayusjetstream_large.html