Feb 15 2012

Welcome to ExeterAstro

Welcome all to the new ExeterAstro blog. The primary focus of this area will be to disseminate news, images and more from the Phillips Exeter Academy observatory in Exeter, NH. Seeing as this is post #1, you might also be interested in following us on FaceBook and Twitter. On Facebook the observatory can be found as the Phillips Exeter Academy Grainger Observatory page. On Twitter we are known as PEA_Obs. The Twitter site is used to present time-dependent information. Examples of this include:

Rapidly changing weather conditions that either open or close the observatory.
Weather warnings.
Open houses.
Changes to instrument availability and use.
and more!

We hope you enjoy this blog and the other social media sites as well.

Feb 15 2012

Clear Skies at the Observatory – or Not?

One very helpful tool in our observatory operations has been the Clear Sky Chart. This timely clock shows the conditions of sky clarity, haziness, moisture, wind, and temperature all in one handy plot. Skies are generally clear when both Cloud Cover and Transparency fields are dark blue to black in color for any given time. Time is the x-axis with a red vertical line showing midnight. Darkness is measured by both sunlight and moonlight: perfect for those deep sky astronomers who dislike lunar brightening. More information about this chart and how it was made can be found at the Clear Sky Chart Homepage.