Urban heat island effect on planetary observations

I have always wondered what the urban heat island effect has on lunar and planetary observations. It is impossible to simultaneously compare the view I get from my driveway setup viewing planets to what it would be like if I were at my dark sky site some 30 miles away. Right after dark there is a lot of heat rising from the city, but I have never heard anyone speculate on its effect to the seeing conditions. Is it significant or inconsequential when added to the high level atmospheric turbulence that normally causes poor seeing conditions? Would the viewing be noticeably better at any given time outside the city? Light pollution is not a significant concern as Jupiter and the moon are plenty bright enough to overcome that. I am just trying to figure out if it is worth loading everything and getting out of town when clear sky clock says it is going to be a steady night for viewing. What does everyone think?

DanL

In conjunction with the heat island effect, the other day I was trying to establish the AFOV of my EP/Scope assembly and was observing with some wind and found that I couldn't even focus some of my EPs due to the turbulence. My guess is that the turbulence very close to the telescope is the most destructive. I could actually see the waves caused by the wind. Thus, my guess is that the further away the actual turbulence is, the less effect there is. The atmospheric turbulence is very observable on a greatly out of focus star. I use this kind of information along with star tests to
evaluate seeing conditions each night. So my conclusion would be that the further away from the Urban heat you are, the less impact it would have.

IMHO, the further away you are from the City, the better the chances of a Great Night, no matter what you look at... (of course, GOOD SEEING and conditions have to be applied here...)


Just my .02 pesos, spend them wisely! 8)

Dan,

You may want to read this recent post from the Equipment Forum:

http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=453732&poll_id=&news_id=&page=

clear skies,
dan