(meteorobs) Hazy sky

Bruce McCurdy bmccurdy at shaw.ca
Fri Aug 1 14:01:19 EDT 2014


Is this somehow related to forest fire smoke? We got inundated with it in Alberta a while back; during some of my observatory shifts even as the weather office was reporting “clear skies” the daytime sky was almost ashen in colour, with even the Sun appearing substantially dimmer (through a welder’s glass) and bronze in colour (when glimpsed naked eye). Not as extreme as a couple of years ago, when one afternoon at the observatory the Sun went “out” in late afternoon with nary a cloud visible in the sky, just turned shades of red and pink as it faded right into the smoke.  

 

Not sure how the trade winds may have carried that most recent stuff, but it was plenty thick so may not have completely dissipated in the process. Here in Edmonton it took a day of torrential rain (~80 mm) last week before the blue sky returned. 

 

Bruce

*****

 

From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org [mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of pzeller1966
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2014 11:13 AM
To: Meteor science and meteor observing
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Hazy sky

 

Paul Martsching's post has me wondering if there isn't something going on with the atmosphere over the Midwest this week. I've had the same experience in Indiana. On nights that were forecast to be crystal clear with relatively low humidity there's been a persistent haze that has really cut my limiting magnitude and discouraged observing. This morning it was about +3.8 and I can usually get close to +5.0 or higher even though I'm in the Indianapolis suburbs. I'm wondering if the weather systems passing through have brought in wildfire smoke from out west? 

On Aug 1, 2014 11:09 AM, "Paul Martsching" <pmartsching at mchsi.com> wrote:

Wednesday evening / Thursday morning the worst haze / general limiting magnitude that I have ever seen without fog, or clouds.  At the zenith LM ~ 5.0.  In the southern sky Antares was the only star for many degrees above the horizon.  In the NE, which is usually the best direction, stars dimmer than +2 couldn't be seen 20 degrees above the horizon.   I did see one +3 SDA cross Cygnus (overhead) as I was checking out how bad the sky really was about midnight.  On the drive out and back no fog what so ever.  It was nearly as bad last night, so I didn't go out.  The weather men keep talking about the low dew points (in the 50's) and the dry and comfortable air, but the sky is milky in day time and the haze is obvious.  At night the temperature drops and the haze gets much worse.  Maybe a cold front will come thru and get rid of some of the haze.  Hoping for clear and less hazy sky soon.

Paul Martsching in Iowa
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