Winter comes to Aratula Observatory

[Sausageman]

What a change in the weather in a week.
First we had some very welcome and much needed rain in SE QLD.
Then the Westerly winds came and very cold temps.
Last Friday started off great, so I packed my scope in the car and headed for the Observatory, a 45 minute drive. By the time I got there the wind had come up to about 30 Kph making it pointless setting up. The sky was crystal clear, then the temperature dropped like a stone.
I actually went to bed with 2 dooner's on the bed, and still I was cold wearing my trackies as well.
People don't think of sub tropical QLD being freezing, but it can be.
The dew set in about 9 pm putting any observing to rest, and it actually rained overnight.
Brief showers, cold winds and broken clouds happened all day Saturday, making Solar Observing impossible also.
I went home feeling awful after lunch, after getting chilled to the bone.
I hope next weekend is better.

Mike

[KG8]

Yes it was a none event, tonight is the goer though!! I'm stuck in the city but Jupiter is coming up very nice in the 13mm and the brighter globulars and opens are crystal clear. The humidity here in Bris is well over 80% and earlier there was a ton of dew, a good test for my new homemade heaters, which came through with flying colors. All the other table top stuff, charts etc. got wet but the corrector plate stayed dry as a bone. Except for a bit when I pulled the shield off to adjust the collimation. It was off for about 15 min all up and that was enough to see the plate covered in dew. I put the shield back on and pointed the scope at the ground, to trap the heat in, and 15 min later it was all clear again.

[Sausageman]

I must get a dew shield, it will add to the drain on my power pack though, but I can use 240V at the observatory, via the Solar power.
It was a shame the weather turned bad, I was looking forward to a great night's viewing.

Mike

[sheeny]

That's a shame, Mike. I'm a bit surprized that you don't have a dew shield/heater. I'm assuming you are talking about the LX... I thought they were a must have for SCT owners!:lol:

Glad to see you're still about... you've been quiet for a while:).

Al.

[Sausageman]

Hey Al,
You are right, it is a must have item.
I have been working long 12 hour shifts, 6pm till 6am, but I'm back to normal now.
PS it was 2.8 degrees here this morning. Brrrrrrr

Mike