Courses in Astrophotography

UK and Europe Astronomical Seeing forecast.

(Updated Daily.)

Purpose.

To provide UK and European astronomers with an easy to understand guide to the anticipated astronomical seeing they are likely to experience. This can be considered a reasonably accurate guide but by no means perfect, as local heat sources could affect the stability experienced from more Urban locations. This page does NOT cover anticipated cloud cover or other weather phenomena.

1000mb Sea Level Pressure 84hr Outlook.

Click above image for full size current charts covering the next few days from the Metoffice.

This chart shows the expected sea level pressure over Europe for the next 7 days. Red areas indicate high pressure regions, while blue areas low pressure regions. Isobars also indicated wind speed and direction, with more widely spaced isobars meaning lighter winds. Good to excellent seeing is strongly correlated with very low wind speeds over the UK and Northern Europe be it under High or Low pressure.

300mb Wind speed and direction.

Click above image for full size current chart from Unisys.

This chart shows the forecast wind speed and direction of the 300mb level winds (known as the jetstream level.) The winds at this altitude play a critical role on how steady the seeing conditions will be, with very low wind speeds correlated with very steady seeing. The chart shows the forecast winds for the next 3 days. It is updated twice daily. Wind speeds are indicated by colours (as well as isobar spacing.) The colours convert to the following:

1. Pink coloured areas. Very low wind speeds. Periods of excellent seeing likely.

2. Dark blue coloured areas. Low winds speeds. Periods of good seeing likely.

3. Aqua/Green coloured areas. Moderate wind speeds. Fair to poor seeing likely.

4. Yellow. Moderate/High wind speeds. Poor seeing likely.

5. Orange/Red coloured areas. High/Very high winds speeds. Poor or Very poor seeing likely.