Very interesting Daniel! So when you say "When this number is over an inch we are in for a rough ride." do you mean Precipitable Water [mm] greater than 25.4mm? Regarding contrails,safe to assume longer = more moisture? Bruce Hugo ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 10:35:58 -0700 (PDT) From: daniel turner <outwest112@yahoo.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Weather balloons Message-ID: <1378229758.69287.YahooMailNeo@web163803.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Actually I reference the data that these balloons capture when I want to go out observing.? ? http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html ? The balloons go up twice a day at 0z and 12z and their data can show layers of moist air that will cause observing problems as well as giving the total water in the air column which indicates thunder storm potential.? ? Here is an example. ? Precipitable water [mm] for entire sounding: 29.94 When this number is over an inch we are in for a rough ride.? ? When it is less than a 10 the air is very dry and deep sky objects like the eyes in the Owl nebula start to jump out at you in the eyepiece.? ? I also monitor the length of contrails but these only tell you what is happening at the altitude of the aircraft. ? DT ? ? ? ? ________________________________ From: Seth Jarvis <SJarvis@slco.org> To: 'Utah Astronomy' <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 8:15 AM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Weather balloons Just a thought: http://www.noaa.gov/features/02_monitoring/balloon.html -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2013 5:55 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Weather balloons Maybe one of you pilots can shed some light on this.? I swear I saw a weather balloon being released at SL Int'l airport this morning.? It appeared to be a balloon with an orangish beacon light on the bottom, that illuminated the balloon itself.? Constant light, no flashing.? I stared at it for a while thinking it might be a helicopter taking-off, but the lights were wrong and it didn't fly any kind of pattern, just more-or-less straight up and following the wind direction. About 5:05 AM, not far from the Million-Air terminal that Patrick flies from. Do those balloons still get used?? Seems kind of hazardous releasing it from the airport, unless radar showed no incoming traffic for a long ways off. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options". _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options". ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 11:58:57 -0600 From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] observing report Message-ID: <CAHmuOYpq_8i_wwV3zpaY9NtC3=gVOrp21aGqu0bG0J3RPAV1rA@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Sometimes it's good to just get out of the house, Mat. I've had the last ten days off (back at work today), and only one of them was worth actually taking out the telescope, when I had the energy at the end of the day. Two other nights I did some binocular observing with the Resolux 15x70mm (nice bino!). Keeping my fingers crossed for some good "Indian summer" weather in the next couple of months, before it gets frigid again. Mid September until mid November is my favorite time of year if the weather cooperates. BTW, this morning I saw Sirius peeking above the mountains before sunrise for the first time this summer. Orion is well up by then. Winter is not far off. On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 11:01 AM, Hutchings, Mat <mat.hutchings@siemens.com>wrote:
Well, 5 of us headed out to the Pit-N-Pole last Friday, and we ultimately called it an early night due to clouds and wind.
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