Do you mind if I have a whinge about the weather? I hope not.
I've always seen winter as my time to play astro. But this year, things conspired a bit against me and that didn't happen. After an utterly awful summer in 16/17, I was already in an astro drought even before winter.
Now, we're coming into what we euphemistically call "Spring" and by rights it ought to be a time of renewal, welcome rains, growing grass and happy cows. Not so - again. This year is no different from the last, and the several before that. Spring did not spring. It remained dry and now, to boot, it is prematurely hot.
We're lining up for high 30s to low 40s out here this weekend and that means more dust haze, turbulent skies and abysmal seeing. I go over to the obs more to pat the gear rather than to use it.
And soon, we will have the usual annual burning-off season. As soon as a bit of rain seems possible, the cattle growers out here will be lighting their matches. That'll last a month or so.
Then we'll have another summer to contend with. And so it goes on, and on, and on.
And to make it all so much worse, I have gone off the grog for a couple of months. These are the times that try men's souls, as they say!
You're not alone. I think the whole east coast is in the same boat. Lucky imaging has a new meaning: a handful of nights per year when good seeing, new moon and transparency converge.
In between, well... take what you can.
The burning off has been going on here for the last month and hopefully is now over. Despite the burn offs the smoke has generally blown away and the usual September westerlies are back after going missing for a few years. Despite the daytime heat, and its 33 here right now, its still dropping down below 15C at night. I find, what works best for me, is to image after midnight at high altitudes (+45 degrees). As long as my camera can still pull the sensor down to -25C i will keep going, seeing permitting. Waiting till after midnight allows the ground to cool down and any dew to settle ( although there has been very little dew because of the low humidity). There is less stray light around as well. Right now there are plenty of targets rising in the east after midnight: all of the Orion objects, the LMC and its attractions, etc.
Thankfully i am retired and live alone (well there is the dog), so altering my hours to work a night shift imaging is not hard, and i enjoy it. Once the observatory sequence is started i can come inside and have a port and monitor the progress via Teamviewer. Its a good time of the year imho, but come December i will be taking a break and pulling all the gear back into the house until it cools off abit.