>>46170Unstable air doesn't affect the brightness of starts, it just blurs the detail if you're observing through a telescope. If you actually just star gazing by the naked eye or through binoculars, then the air hardly matters at all, just dark skies. For planetary observing though, it's pretty much ONLY the air that matters, because planets are so bright they can be seen right through even the worst light pollution.
I've done a decent bit of astronomy, and have gotten plenty of good observing nights right in and around Phoenix at 1.5k feet altitude. I've also been up to a 32" telescope in an actual observatory at over 12k feet altitude and had terrible air. High altitude tends to have better air, but it's still down to luck and you can have good air anywhere.
This picture is a shot of Jupiter I snapped out of one of my scopes with my cell phone from my driveway in Phoenix when the air was good. I just held it up to the eyepiece and snapped, simple as can be. The two little dots pointing down towards the seven o'clock position, one just about touching Jupiter and the other towards the edge of the frame, are two of Jupiter's moons. You can see the moons around it with just binoculars. It's amazing to see for the first time.
