Schlieren Test

by: Simon Tang

Ever looked through your telescope on one night and then again on another night and wondered why the performance differs so much?

Several factors can impact your viewing pleasure from seeing conditions, transparency, and other random variables.

One particular issue is temperature differences.

The video about demonstrates Schlieren Optics which makes the invisible, visible! 

So what's the point of all this? The idea is to give you the viewer, an idea of how your surroundings can impact your viewing. That guy standing next to you with that steaming cup of coffee is basically affecting your viewing. Granted this level of astronomy is in incredibly high up there is terms of viewing, but now you can see the effects of what temperature differences can make in your viewing experience.