Long distance observations – definition & types

Long Distance Observations definitions types

This article is about the general definition of the realm, which has been described occasionally on this website since 2017. Therefore I guess I should have done it much earlier, however better late than never. Anyhow today I would like to focus exactly on both the primary definition as well as the basic divisions of … Read more

Travelling & Sightseeing from home

Google Trekker

Now is not the best time for traveling around the world, because it’s restricted due to the coronavirus outbreak worldwide. Nevertheless, if our life is affected by a pandemic or not, this type of sightseeing always has pros. 1. REASONS FOR TRAVELLING & SIGHTSEEING FROM HOME The rudimental reason for it is the preparation for … Read more

The aspect of light reflection in the long-distance observations

Northern Ireland seen from Helvellyn

This article presents the result of the longest distance observation in my life. Because it was an effect of the light phenomenon, not widely discussed by myself so far I decided to develop this topic, because of its influence on the far realing views during some specified conditions (tick haze trapped in low-level of the […]

How bright the starlight is?

Albany, WA, Starlight

A vast majority of people around the World don’t realize something like starlight. Nowadays, when skies are highly polluted with light, most people cannot even see the Milky Way in the sky. It’s known history, that during a huge power cut in Los Angeles in 1994 people were calling authorities, asking them what is this … Read more

Visual range changes during solar eclipses

Owl Creek Mountains extended visual range total solar eclipse

A solar eclipse is a magnificent natural phenomenon, during which the direct Sun is shadowed by the moon to darken the daytime sky (Vollmer, Shaw, 2018). In this article, I would like to draw your attention to another phenomenon, which I “discovered” accidentally during the Great American Eclipse – the visual range changes. 1. INTRODUCTION … Read more

Horizontal visibility as the main factor of long-distance observations, part 2 – contrast, human perception and weather forecast

Bryce Canyon horizontal visibility

In the 1st part of this article, I have explained the relationship between visibility and weather conditions as well as an astronomical factor and light scattering issue. Now I would like to explain the contrast phenomena and human eye perception of the view, which are also integral elements of long-distance observations. Recently the contrast issue … Read more

Horizontal visibility as the main factor of long-distance observations, part 1 – weather, astronomical and optical elements

Navajo Mt Horizontal visibility

This article is sort of a continuation of issues related to light scattering in the Earth’s atmosphere as well as haze presence. These subjects are closely associated with each other, so some stuff presented here can be pretty much similar and it will be developed on the grounds of my previous articles. This 2-partial article … Read more

Why the haze is an important weather factor, part 2 – impact on visibility and light scattering

Haze impact on light scattering

This writing is a continuation of a whole article about haze as an important weather factor. Previously I have described the basic types of haze and I drew attention to the impact the atmospheric aerosols on human health. Now, in terms of the continuation, I would like to describe the impact of haze on the … Read more

Why haze is an important weather factor? part 1 – types of aerosol and impact on human health

Inwersja widziana z Karkonoszy

People when checking the weather forecast usually focus on standard weather factors like temperature, pressure, wind, precipitation, and cloud cover. There are weather elements important in our day-to-day life, unlike other elements like dew point temperature, humidity, haze level, etc. In this article, I would like to describe the importance of haze in forming weather … Read more

Light scattering in the Earth’s atmosphere part 3 – clouds, haze and surface

Light scattering on clouds

Previously I have described the light scattering mechanism on the smallest particles of the Earth’s atmosphere, where mainly the Rayleigh Scattering plays a role. Now is the time to round off this whole article and say something more about a different group of elements, that also contributes to the light scattering process. There are bigger … Read more

Light scattering in the Earth’s atmosphere part 2 – why is the sky blue and how the sky colour change?

Light scattering in the atmosphere

When we ask ourselves why the sky is blue we can think about the most important type of light scattering in the Earth’s atmosphere. This is Rayleigh scattering. I was writing about this type of light scattering on some occasions, like watching the solar eclipse through the webcams or wondering about the Martian sky. Today … Read more

Light scattering in the Earth’s atmosphere part 1 – scattering and related phenomena

Light diffraction on clouds

1. INTRODUCTION My deep interest in the light scattering in Earth’s atmosphere arose out of my observations of the behavior of the Earth’s atmosphere, especially around sunrise, sunset (golden hour, blue hour, twilight), and during eclipses. I like to observe the weather phenomena and atmosphere response to environmental phenomena both live and remotely. Due to … Read more

What is the colour of Martian sky?

Martian sky NASA jpl

The Mars Exploration Program has been launching for around 20 years since the first probe Mars Pathfinder done by NASA landed on the Red’s Planet surface. For this time another four rovers touched down on the Martian ground: Spirit & Opportunity (2004), Phoenix  (2008), and Curiosity (2012). All of those missions beamed many photos of … Read more

Total solar eclipse vizualisation on Google Earth, part 2

Solar eclipse visualization Google Earth

<<< Read the 1st part of The solar eclipse visualization on Google Earth In the 1st part of this article, I showed you how to create the “umbra” in Scribble Maps and use it in Google Earth as a .kml file. Here I would like to demonstrate step by step how to create a pretty … Read more