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Re: Tropical LMs? (was Re: (meteorobs) Re: Zodiacal light)
At 05:18 PM 2/2/00 -0500, Lew wrote:
>
>Jim, how do your LMs from Haleakala and Mauna Kea compare with those you
>were used to recording from the very darkest sites on the mainland before?
>
They are pretty comparable. I have always wondered at this too, but not
enough to really research it! In Hawaii, I have always typically observed
at sea level, or close to it, and attributed any less-than-ideal conditions
there to moisture, salt spray, etc. You can still find an almost-decent
sky on the northwest corner of Oahu, despite the city lights of Honolulu.
You can get really excellent conditions on the west end (the dry end) of
Molokai, at a few hundred feet above sea level. On Haleakala or Mauna Kea,
you get above a bunch of the atmosphere, and particularly on Mauna Kea
above the moisture (which is why the observatories are there to begin
with), but there are oxygen deprivation effects that begin to rob you of
night vision. I don't know that those physiological effects have ever been
quantified, but they would certainly have an effect on observer-perceived
LM.
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