Hello and welcome! I’d love to hear from both experienced and beginner astrophotographers out there.
What’s your take on the best season for astrophotography?
I always thought winter was the go-to for capturing stunning night skies, with those crystal-clear views.
But with climate change shaking things up,
I'm starting to wonder if that's still the case.
So, I'm curious—what do you all think? Is spring the top contender since it has less rain, or does summer win for being the driest season?
I'd love to hear about your experiences and insights!
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When you talk about seasons in astrophotography, we generally think either Milky Way Season, or Galaxy season.
Milky way season is perfect for astrophotographers with shorter focal lengths, however galaxy season is prime for the folks with big aperture.
Earth seasons vary by location. For me, spring the the absolute worst. That's when it's the rainiest. Summer into late fall is the best because warm air moves over a smooth surface and gives me top notch seeing.
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For at least Oklahoma and New Mexico I would pick fall and early winter as the best time. Lots of clear, steady, transparent and long nights. Summer nights are too short and too hot, even with cooled cameras. When nights are in the 90's it's a struggle to cool the chip to 0 and you can forget about uncooled cameras. Add mosquitoes and it's pretty unpleasant.
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I'm down in Australia. IMO - Winter is the best time period because of the 11 hour astrodark. Milkyway covers the entire night sky from the southern horizons all the way to the northern horizons while the MW is at zenith. Because its much colder, I don't need to worry about bugs. Theres a ton of targets to shoot as well so you wont get bored easily because theres a lot to do. Bringing out the scope for dark sky trips is a lot of fun with the MW core visible naked eye and other DSOs can be seen.
Least favourite would be spring - The Great Nothing Period. There are 4 decent galaxies, SMC and helix nebula. Thats pretty much all that's there which if you don't have the right gear, is incredibly boring. Its too early for Orion and too late for MW targets.
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Summer gave me the most memorable sky quality; I took my Clamshell data during Summer, it was very sharp; seeing was extremely good and consistent across many nights
for the mosquitoes, I use a Flowtron bug zapper, it works really well
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Spring, Summer, and Fall. Winter is hit or miss with the weather…
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Tony Gondola:
For at least Oklahoma and New Mexico I would pick fall and early winter as the best time. Lots of clear, steady, transparent and long nights. Summer nights are too short and too hot, even with cooled cameras. When nights are in the 90's it's a struggle to cool the chip to 0 and you can forget about uncooled cameras. Add mosquitoes and it's pretty unpleasant. Late summer has some of the worst transparency, and agreed, summers are impossibly hot, my camera barely dips below -5C during the summers, but the seeing in E OK is phenomenal, I've seen it as low as 0.9"!
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V:
Tony Gondola:
For at least Oklahoma and New Mexico I would pick fall and early winter as the best time. Lots of clear, steady, transparent and long nights. Summer nights are too short and too hot, even with cooled cameras. When nights are in the 90's it's a struggle to cool the chip to 0 and you can forget about uncooled cameras. Add mosquitoes and it's pretty unpleasant.
Late summer has some of the worst transparency, and agreed, summers are impossibly hot, my camera barely dips below -5C during the summers, but the seeing in E OK is phenomenal, I've seen it as low as 0.9"! I'm in Tulsa and have also seen some very steady nights here in early January this year. In terms of seeing, conditions have been much better than I was used to in New Mexico.
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I consider several things related to seasons which include targets available, others have mentioned "galaxy" (Fall, Winter, Spring) season and "nebula season" (Spring, Summer, Fall).
But I also prefer "colder temperatures" as the equipment performs better, especially the ability to cool your camera sensor so for that I really like Fall and Winter, as I can easily cool my camera from -10 C to -20 C. I am lucky if I can get the sensor to O C in the Summer, and images definitely are more noisy. Fall, Winter evenings are clearer with better transparency and seeing - Summer has a lot of atmospheric turbulence.
Then there is the "longer" vs "shorter" nights (astronomical darkness) - especially for those at more northern latitudes, I can only may squeeze 6 hrs in the Summer - were during the winter I can easily get 10 - it makes a difference.
I leave you with the following advice - plan your targets - know when they transit and plan for their transit to be around the middle of your evening (from end of astronomical twilight to start of astronomical twilight)
Cheers
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Fall, winter and spring, because of astronomical darkness. Summer is the least productive with its short/white nights (no astro darkness during june here @49°N)
Last year almost no astrophotography was possible, because we had the rainiest year ever in central europe. This winter season is much better, with more nights provided than I can schedule with my work time and private life.
With climate change the seasons are more mixed and you never know, if the weather will get better or not.
CS
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Technically winter because the nights are long and the targets are most interesting, but 99% of the nights are clouded so it's like the universe's sick twisted humor.
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The cruelest nights for me are during the winter when seeing is worst and most variable…..crystal clear night, dead calm, and seeing at 6”+…… Of course you don’t know what it is until you get up at 2am, layer up for 10F, and go out and try to image……
Cheers,
Scott
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Scott Badger:
The cruelest nights for me are during the winter when seeing is worst and most variable…..crystal clear night, dead calm, and seeing at 6”+…… Of course you don’t know what it is until you get up at 2am, layer up for 10F, and go out and try to image……
Cheers,
Scott Story of my life 3 weeks now, sky looks perfect and after I setup seeing is so bad even the 350mm frak shows fuzzy hairballs, let alone the 1500mm mak...
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Tony Gondola:
V:
Tony Gondola:
For at least Oklahoma and New Mexico I would pick fall and early winter as the best time. Lots of clear, steady, transparent and long nights. Summer nights are too short and too hot, even with cooled cameras. When nights are in the 90's it's a struggle to cool the chip to 0 and you can forget about uncooled cameras. Add mosquitoes and it's pretty unpleasant.
Late summer has some of the worst transparency, and agreed, summers are impossibly hot, my camera barely dips below -5C during the summers, but the seeing in E OK is phenomenal, I've seen it as low as 0.9"!
I'm in Tulsa and have also seen some very steady nights here in early January this year. In terms of seeing, conditions have been much better than I was used to in New Mexico. Tulsa, wow you're even closer than I thought! I think this time of year, from January to mid march has the worst seeing, the range of seeing this time of year that I've seen is anywhere from 1.9-2.4", versus 1.1-1.7" in the summers into fall. Thats not to say that these months dont have their good or bad days. Worst I've ever seen here I can't give a number for, as the stars even in focus wouldnt register. Pure blur. That was right before a big storm moved in, and since then I've moved on to only shooting after storms, I've never had a bad night doing that.
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V:
Tony Gondola:
V:
Tony Gondola:
For at least Oklahoma and New Mexico I would pick fall and early winter as the best time. Lots of clear, steady, transparent and long nights. Summer nights are too short and too hot, even with cooled cameras. When nights are in the 90's it's a struggle to cool the chip to 0 and you can forget about uncooled cameras. Add mosquitoes and it's pretty unpleasant.
Late summer has some of the worst transparency, and agreed, summers are impossibly hot, my camera barely dips below -5C during the summers, but the seeing in E OK is phenomenal, I've seen it as low as 0.9"!
I'm in Tulsa and have also seen some very steady nights here in early January this year. In terms of seeing, conditions have been much better than I was used to in New Mexico.
Tulsa, wow you're even closer than I thought! I think this time of year, from January to mid march has the worst seeing, the range of seeing this time of year that I've seen is anywhere from 1.9-2.4", versus 1.1-1.7" in the summers into fall. Thats not to say that these months dont have their good or bad days. Worst I've ever seen here I can't give a number for, as the stars even in focus wouldnt register. Pure blur. That was right before a big storm moved in, and since then I've moved on to only shooting after storms, I've never had a bad night doing that. I think that kind of timing is a pretty good bet!
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That entirely depends on where you live. So your question should be narrowed down to specifying which broad geographic area.
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Gilmour Dickson:
That entirely depends on where you live. So your question should be narrowed down to specifying which broad geographic area. I was thinking that too. Folks should include a general location with their comments.
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