Re: [APML] Sands of Sahara - Transparancy

["Tom & Lou Krajci" <krajcit@3lefties.com>]

From: "Michael Gartland" <mgartlan@iconn.net>

> Hi all....finally back after a 2 weeks journey thru the lower Middle
> East and Persian Gulf region....
>
>...various very dark
> sites out in the desert and on the Gulf coast of S.A. and Bahrain. I can
> say that indeed the transparacy is lousy, even on the darkest skies, the
> sky had a muted look, and the stars were hidden....

In the spring of 1997 I was deployed to central Saudi Arabia...just another
rotation of that endless "Operation Southern Watch."  Hale-Bopp was starting
to put on a show in the morning sky...late February.  I built a hand powered
barn door tracker for a latitude of 24 degrees and stuffed it in my duffle
bag...along with my desert uniforms and 35mm camera.

Yes, the sky was lousy...full of dust.  (And the air base had enormous
security lighting on at all hours.)  Also, the jet stream was placed over
central Saudi...for days at a time the sky was never fully clear...always
'horsetail' cirrus to some extent, more or less.

I took photos of Hale-Bopp and observed that comet with binoculars on my
deployment...and I'm proud of my hand guided photos taken at 5 AM, before
beginning my 12 hour shifts.  But every last photo had a brownish cast to it
from the ever present dust.

When I was in Saudi last summer/fall...in the high temp's the dust was even
worse.  Plenty of times on 'clear' days sunset was invisible...obscured by
dust.

Tom Krajci


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