ccd skynix 2.0m
Hi Manasiri,
Thanks for your reply.
Dependig on what type of activity you want to do the choice of a site is more or less impacting. Of course you will be to perform better any astronomical activity in a site with a steady atmosphere, with no light pollution and with a very good level of transparency. However, as said before, each one of these parameters will impact more or less depending what you intend to do.
Below I will list some of the most common astronomical activities in the context of an amateur astronomer and, based on my experience, analyse the impact the site parameters:
1- Comets, Asteroids and Supernovae hunting and variable star photometry/visual observation: The most important parameter here is the atmosphere transparency and in second place low level of light pollution. A steady atmosphere doesn't play an important rule in this case. For this activity you wll want to see the dimest star magnitude possible, and normally the job is done in reasonable wide field.
2- Galactic evolution: Here a steady atmosphere starts to be an important issue, once you might want to study galaxies with small aparent size. Light pollution comes in second place and transparency in third because of the dim light you will have to capture.
3- Planetary imaging/visual observations: Here a steady atmosphere is king. Usualy one work with less than 1 arc minute field of view so that any kind of turbulence will be enourmously magnified and the image will appear blurred with no details. Al the other parameters are almost irrelevant here.
4- Planetary nebulae imaging/visual observation: almost the same case as above, but transparency and light pollution pay an important role.
5- Widefield imaging in general: Here transparency is king followed by light pollution. Atmosphere stability almost doesn't matter.
Some suggestion as for ranking an observing site can be found in several books about CCD imaging, as for example: CCD Astrophotography: High-Quality Imaging from the Suburbs by Adam Stuart or Handbook of CCD Astronomy, 2nd Edition by Steve B. Howell.
Sorry about this long post but astronomy is a so exciting field that I use to lose control once I start chating.
NandoPG