Astro photography & light pollution

[gsgary]

Vosges mountains are not far from you

 

[astroNikon]

I shoot mostly in my back yard, but I check for atmospheric conditions before I even bother doing anything.
usually after a storm or front has rolled through or it's just too nice outside not to do something.

 

[pgriz]

In the area you're looking at, the wooded areas between D4 and D66 look promising. Seeing conditions are a function of humidity, aerosol particulates, sky glow, and reflected light from terrestial sources. As noted earlier by myself and astroNikon, the best transparency is usually right after a front passes through, with the rain cleaning up the atmosphere. If you can find a place which is surrounded by forest, then that helps with local light back-scatter. Usually, if the lower 20 degrees of azimith are hidden by trees, or other objects, that's not a major issue. To know what you 'll be looking at, use the freeware program Stellarium (Stellarium), which you can instruct to show the sky from any point on Earth.

 

[KmH]

Because with elevation air becomes thinner very rapidly. However, a few hundred meters probably wouldn't suffice. This is why telescopes are frequently built on tall peaks.

With higher elevation air temperatures are lower too - about 1° for every 1000 feet.
The lower the air temperature the less water vapor it can hold.
There is a lot more water vapor in air if the air temperature is 100°F than there is at 100% humidity with air temperature at 45°.

They put big telescopes on high mountains for a variety of reasons, including getting above a significant amount of the atmosphere.
The ultimate is to get out of the atmosphere, which is why the Hubble Telescope, a relatively small telescope, can make the astonishing images it makes.

 

[hamlet]

In the area you're looking at, the wooded areas between D4 and D66 look promising. Seeing conditions are a function of humidity, aerosol particulates, sky glow, and reflected light from terrestial sources. As noted earlier by myself and astroNikon, the best transparency is usually right after a front passes through, with the rain cleaning up the atmosphere. If you can find a place which is surrounded by forest, then that helps with local light back-scatter. Usually, if the lower 20 degrees of azimith are hidden by trees, or other objects, that's not a major issue. To know what you 'll be looking at, use the freeware program Stellarium (Stellarium), which you can instruct to show the sky from any point on Earth.

That is the general location i will be shooting. I'm going to try to incorporate the trees/rocks/terrain into my astro-timelapse/long exposure.