That's it, had enough

[LewisM]

Giving up astronomy and going to do meteorology instead.

What a bloody run of continuous clouds we have had here in SEQ since December! Looked clear enough today, until the smoke/dust and all manner of particulates stirred in the atmosphere. Sun was stunning red today at sunset.

I wonder, could I photograph clouds in H-a and pretend they are nebulae?:P

[RickS]

Kirlian photography?

[LewisM]

Yes, a good idea. I might try photographing flatulence in infra-red too :rofl:

[Grimmeister]

Cumlo-Bumbus photography LOL :rofl:

[MattT]

Come on Lewis, you need to toughen up a bit…come and live in Melbourne.
Then you'll really know what rubbish weather is all about. Can't tell you the number of times I've looked at Skippy Sky and seen dark blue over Qld and a nice red patch over southern Vic.
Cheer up :D
You could get into ATMing as I recently did…didn't really care about the weather then as long as it was dry in my shed!
Matt

[swannies1983]

IIS wouldn't be the same without the annual Queenslander whingefest at this time of year ;).

[LewisM]

No, it really wouldn't GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

We get our revenge in winter.... but that is a LONG time off still.

[Profiler]

Hi Lewis

I can certainly relate to your feelings!

More and more I find that my so called "astronomy" hobby involves reading IIS and looking at astronomy equipment rather than actually looking through astronomy equipment at the sky.

[lazjen]

Skippysky is such a tease too around this time. I look at it and see the blue sky just oh so close to the south. Zoom in to SE QLD - blotch over Brissie. No astro for you!

[noeyedeer]

clear sky, put the scope out to cool down .. watching closely with smokes .. sky darkens ... clouds fill it. I don't think I've used the scope since Xmas ... and it's frustrating me as well

matt

[Camelopardalis]

Geez, you guys want to try living in the UK :eyepop:

Since we've been living here, I've found myself getting picky with the weather :lol:

[brian nordstrom]

:rofl: Try Perth tis time of the year Lewis .
Its been cloudy on 'ONE' night since I arrived in November ,,, ahhh ,,,

Here are a few of us Saturday night ...:D .
Brian.

[brian nordstrom]

:thumbsup: Not rubbing salt into the wound tho , but here are Peter and Simmo getting out of the sun Saturday arvo ..:lol: . Nice .
Brian.

[astroron]

Oh what a beautiful Lawn you have there.:P
Cheers:thumbsup:

[rmuhlack]

http://www.itelescope.net/

[rmuhlack]

btw when did you pick up another VC200L...? Mine has been in storage for the last few months due to our move, only picked it up yesterday.

[SimmoW]

That gathering of scopes looks almost 'dirty'!

I'm only new to the hobby, but have already got paranoid about the weather. Even today, nice blue sky in Melb, but seeing is real bad due to Gippsland bushfires. Smelly too. But at least I haven't lost our house I suppose...

Then again I'm still waiting for my scope to arrive, so not exactly a disaster. Once delivered, blame me for the 4 weeks of overcast skies.....

[pgc hunter]

I'm the last person in the observable universe to stick up for Melbourne's weather, but recent weeks have had a lot of clear skies. But ofcourse whether they're actually usable is another kettle of fish altogether. Work gets in the way, some nights have been too windy, and now we have smoke haze. Had it not been for work though, I would be wrecked right now from observing so much.

I'll be eating those words come May though... and will be still be chewing on them by November, like a super well done steak

[SimmoW]

That's not lawn, it's low resonance , custom installed ultra level telescope tiling....

[LewisM]

Another? Nope, it's the same one Dave Trapp sold me 2 years ago. It's just been on an extended vacation with a friend in Brisbane :lol::P

I just received the replacement Vixen original rail today from Steve Massey, as it had been equipped with a heavily modified Losmandy rail, that had been further modified bolting a Vixen rail to the bottom of that! The whole rail weighed around 2kg, so NOT ideal for my Vixen mounts (GPD2 and Sphinx) which are only rated to 10 kg and 12 kg photographically respectively. The Vixen original rail weighs not much.

[Steffen]

Bad weather is maintenance time. Stripping down, re-lubricating and adjusting the mount time. Upgrading that firmware time. Cleaning those lenses/eyepieces/corrector plates time. Tending to the batteries time. Changing the IIS password time (because, you know - hackers ;) ). Booking IISAC time.

Cheers
Steffen.

[AndrewJ]

I agree.
Thats either been photoshopped or its not Perth at this time of year.
Theres no way there would be any green showing:rofl:

Andrew

[brian nordstrom]

:shrug: Here in Perth we get to look up , not down at the lovely sand :rofl:

[brian nordstrom]

????? ,:shrug: .?
Brian.

[ianB]

I agree with you Lewis, non stop cloud and very misty the other evening, I tried to have a look tonight at Jupiter but the optics seemed to fog up quickly, I suspect there was a lot of misty air higher up.
And yes it was a beautiful sunset the other night, wished I saw it earlier I would have take a photo.
Tell me please lewis ( im new to all this ) are the seeing conditions a lot better here on the S.S Coast in Winter?

Ian

[Stardrifter_WA]

Yeah, did have a nice lawn once Ron. I am now doing my bit for water conservation!!! :D Water is getting scare in Perth, as our dams are quite low.

Anyway, I got sick of being a slave to a lawn, so let it die. Was going to put in Astro Turf, but the price was such that I nearly fainted. Stuff that, I went a bought a new scope and some eyepieces instead. :D

Don't know what to do with it really. More paving sounds good, but too much heat. Other solutions that I have come up with are too costly too.

Cheers Pete

[MrB]

Yep, almost perfect skies for months now, only wish I could find time to get out under it :(


Sir Walter and the grey water from your washing machine :thumbsup:

[LewisM]

Yes, significantly. That's when the Southerners whinge and moan as they get the winter greys and we get the stunningly clear white-blue skies :) Even from suburbia in winter the swathe of the Milky Way overhead is breath-taking. Plus, during winter, we get a change in prevailing wind directions, changing from onshore (summer) to offshore (winter) (generally, sometimes change)

I have not had to buy a dew heater - yet - but I do have a LONG dew shield and a hair dryer should I need it :)

[ianB]

That sounds great, come on Winter!

Also glad to know that a dew shield "should" suffice without the need for a heater.

[Stardrifter_WA]

I had Palmetto, which cost a packet, and I can tell you, I wouldn't ever use anything like it again. It actually got a disease, which is partly why I just let it die. The cost of the chemical to treat it was horrendous. I just don't want to be a slave to a lawn any more. :D

I am probably going to be renting this house out in about a year, so I am not really that fussed. It won't make an iota of difference to the rental price, and I will have no issue renting it long term. If I decide to stay, I am thinking I will just fill it with limestone, hard packed, so I never have to worry about weeds either.

Cheers Pete

[Terry B]

It's raining today.:thumbsup:
We need the rain much more than I need to see the night sky. The last rain was Christmas eve so it is very welcome.

[cometcatcher]

I feel your pain Lewis, although we did get one rare night a couple of nights ago where it was clear. Problem was the 75% moon. But I shooted in Ha to get around that.

I remember one year, the year of the spectacular comet McNaught 2009? where we never saw the sky for 9 months. The best of the comet escaped me and well there is a limit to my patience and that really broke me. I gave up anything to do with astronomy until mid 2012 for the transit of Venus. Then I got the bug again.

In the meantime, IR cloud photography is pretty cool! I'm having fun with it with my new toy - modded DSLR.

[johnnyjetski]

Ian,........ I wouldnt go so far as wishing for winter yet, lots to see in a summer sky. Agree with you Lewis, such a bad run lately with cloud and small showers appearing out of know-where at anytime.

John

[Stardrifter_WA]

The West is where to be,
For the skies they be clear,
Though the moon be too full to see
So, I think I'll just go have another beer. :lol:

Not that I am rubbing it in! :D We really have had a wonderful run of clear skies, and reasonably cool temperatures too.

[ianB]

Im just keen for some clear sky John, im new to this and since getting my telescope its been cloud cover all the way or, like today very hazy.
I had a quick look at jupiter the other night but it was misty in every ep that i tried, must be due to water vapor high up? Either that or my scope is rubbish.
I saw two faint bands with my 25mm ep at x60 but thats it, at x120 x166 the view was no better and fuzzy, I hope the winter sky will allow better crisp views?
I have a celestron 6 SE f10

[brisen]

Hi Ian

I went from seeing stars 5 and 6 in the trapezium and the best views of Jupiter I have had, you could see the lower bands quite clearly, on Tuesday night to seeing a fuzzy ball with no stripes and definitely no chance of seeing the fainter elements of the trapezium on Wednesday night.

There was a very thin layer of high level cirrus and a haze on Wednesday night. I have a C11 Edge HD and two different views on consecutive nights in the same light polluted spot on the driveway beside the streetlight that I would love to short circuit. It is likely to be the seeing and transparency which caused the fuzziness in your view as opposed to your optics.

Brian

[johnnyjetski]

Brian....I did manage to get a few images of Jupiter on Tues, but as you said, you had to pick between the cloud.
Looks like another wipeout tonight too. Hang in there Ian, definately not your optics

John

[ianB]

Thanks Brian And John, glad to hear that, I was a little worried for a moment thinking thats as good as it will get.
No good trying to view tonight, I guess in this hobby patience is required. :-)

Thank you both.

[cybereye]

Add "New South Welshman living in Queensland" to that list!

It's been so cloudy I've been living over on Flickr where pictures of clouds are admired and revered! I actually bothered to set up the scope two Sundays ago - some false hope due to blue skies - but by the time I'd aligned, etc and found my target the clouds rolled in and it started to rain! I noted from my hand-controller that this was the first time I'd set up the scope since November last year.

Not Happy Jan!!!

OK bring on Autumn and Winter so I can start posting images on IIS again...

Mario

[andrew_d_cool]

Hi Guys,

Just a reminder that the Dark Blue on SkippySky Cloud maps does _not_
necessarily mean clear, cloudless skies! The colours are in deciles, i.e. the Dark Blue represents a forecast range of 0%..10% cloud cover.

So while you're less likely to have cloud, you'd also be surprised just
how thick 10% cloud cover can appear!

As I've said many times since 2008, think in terms of trends in the data,
not absolutes.

Regards,

Andrew Cool
www.skippysky.com.au

[icytailmark]

im seriously considering selling my C14 sydney weather has been really bad the last few months.We get a few clear nights per month now.What is the point spending thousands of dollars on equipment when you dont get a chance to use it? I wanted to get into planetary imaging. I bought all the right equipment and ive only imaged a few times.

[Wavytone]

Hi Mark, fully appreciate your feelings.

This is still far short of 1989-90 when Sydney had 18 months of overcast or wet weather - and from memory 26 weekends in a row were rained out, ruining quite a few sports fixtures. My scopes hadn't been out in over 12 months and finally I got rid of all my astro gear, and left the hobby completely for 20 years.

These days I can't see the point in a significant outlay for a scope that might not be used once in 12 months, so I can't regard it as a serious hobby anymore. I only keep a modest setup for casual visual use with the wife and friends, if there's something worth looking at.

By comparison I can go flying 2 weekends out of 3, which is a lot more fun.