What are Seeing Conditions?
​Seeing conditions refers to the stability of the atmosphere. The air in our atmosphere bends and distorts in-coming light rays. Varying temperature layers have different densities, therefore bending light differently. No matter the size of your scope, a 2.5" refractor or a 16" reflector, fluctuations in seeing are always going to be important to the quality of your image and the higher the power the worse you image will be. Beams of light  (photons) entering the atmosphere are parallel. The turbulence that you encounter refracts the light so each beam of light will have a different focus when it strikes your mirror or lens. Photography only makes it worse. With only one second of exposure, your image will be somewhat blurred. To find current seeing  conditions at Sky's The Limit, go to the Clear Sky Chart and find the line, SEEING.