Stonius
07-08-2016, 05:49 PM
Hi Y'all,
I had a rather disastrous night the other night where I tried to sneak off after an evening engagement for a little dark sky stargazing. Packed the car, was on the road by 10:30. I have a special spot I've observed at a number of times and it works rather well for me as I can turn up late at night and it doesnt bother anyone. I drove with the heater off, so the scopes stay closer to the ambient temperature, which was about 1 degree. As I got closer to my little spot patches of fog became so thick that I had to use my fog lights and drive 30km in an 80 zone just to avoid accidentally making skippy pancakes. Yet strangely, if I looked straight up, you could still see stars quite clearly. And it would come and go from a pea soup to a beautiful clear night in a matter of meters! Very strange. Hoping that my little spot would be elevated above all this I persevered, only to find when I was within *600m* of my destination the road had been closed. Ugh!
Long story short, I found myself in the bush with no reception wondering where the hell else I could go for a little stargazing where I would not draw the attention of local attack dogs, shotguns or even worse, light pollution.
My bad, I should have sorted out a B plan before I left, but to those weather gurus out there, do you happen to know whether this sort of thing is caused by moist ocean air (which would presumably have less of an effect further inland where the air is drier), or is it a factor of elevation causing condensation by orographic uplift (where a lower elevation would, presumably be better) or is it a matter of bushland trees retaining moisture that is released back to the atmosphere at night causing fog, in which case a cleared area, either on a hill or a plain would be best?
My knowledge on local weather is sadly lacking in this area.
Markus
I had a rather disastrous night the other night where I tried to sneak off after an evening engagement for a little dark sky stargazing. Packed the car, was on the road by 10:30. I have a special spot I've observed at a number of times and it works rather well for me as I can turn up late at night and it doesnt bother anyone. I drove with the heater off, so the scopes stay closer to the ambient temperature, which was about 1 degree. As I got closer to my little spot patches of fog became so thick that I had to use my fog lights and drive 30km in an 80 zone just to avoid accidentally making skippy pancakes. Yet strangely, if I looked straight up, you could still see stars quite clearly. And it would come and go from a pea soup to a beautiful clear night in a matter of meters! Very strange. Hoping that my little spot would be elevated above all this I persevered, only to find when I was within *600m* of my destination the road had been closed. Ugh!
Long story short, I found myself in the bush with no reception wondering where the hell else I could go for a little stargazing where I would not draw the attention of local attack dogs, shotguns or even worse, light pollution.
My bad, I should have sorted out a B plan before I left, but to those weather gurus out there, do you happen to know whether this sort of thing is caused by moist ocean air (which would presumably have less of an effect further inland where the air is drier), or is it a factor of elevation causing condensation by orographic uplift (where a lower elevation would, presumably be better) or is it a matter of bushland trees retaining moisture that is released back to the atmosphere at night causing fog, in which case a cleared area, either on a hill or a plain would be best?
My knowledge on local weather is sadly lacking in this area.
Markus