People occaisonally ask how they can help. These are things people have done -- all very much appreciated:
Be a Sponsor
Sponsors help defray the cost of generating charts from CMC data thereby
help give charts to everyone. (In addition to altruism, there are a few more reasons for being one.)
Sponsors are extreemly cool people.
.
Impress Allan's bosses
I'm dependant on the data from CMC to generate the charts. While my chart generation
algorithms can be generalized to use other forecast maps, I've found none as accurate
as CMC's data for forecasting clear skies.
In the past the future of CMC's astronomy forecasts was not certain. However, CMC
directors have recently decided to work towards making the astronomy forecasts an
official product. The thousands of emails of support sent to me and Allan Rahill, were
a factor in convincing the directors.
Although the future of the forecasts, and therefore the clear sky charts, is
more certain, we'd still like to maintain a polite influnce on the directors. So feel free to
write Allan Rahill
(feel free to copy
me) emails describing how you find the charts and
forecasts useful.
Tell Sponsors they're cool
If a commercial sponsor supports your favorite chart, tell them that it's cool of them to support the astronomy
community
Report Errors
Please email me with any errors you see on this site.
The usual problem is a broken link. But, occaisonally, I setup a chart with a wrong
latitude and longitude. That is the most common cause for a consistantly inaccurate
chart. I'd appreciate other eyes checking that the locations are correct. (The
'road map' links on the legend pages are an easy way to do that.)
Request Charts
Ask
me
to create charts for locations that will have many users, ex:
star parties, astronomy outreach sites and observatories. I am dependant on users to
know what sites are good candidates for clear sky charts.
Suggest links
I like to include a comment and links with each chart to give passers-by a clue
as to who to contact about using the observing site for which the chart is forecasting.
Please email me with links about observing
at specific locations, or about clubs and organizations that own the sites. (As
much as I enjoy general astronomy websites and personal pages, I dont link them
unless they are specifically related to the chart site.)
Report weather observations
Allan needs real observations with which to tune his forecast models. If you keep
logs of actual sky transparency please email them to Allan.
Clear Sky Charts Home
