Oh ... bother

[AstralTraveller]

I'm going to the local Science Centre tonight for a public viewing night. You know the scene - moon and planets only, good eyepieces locked away, lots of oohs and aahs the occassional clutz to watch out for. I've doing it for years and enjoy it.

I have, however, formed the view that you want one of two types of weather on these nights. Either 1) clear or 2) absolutely filthy (so I can stay at home and pull a cork). Anything in between is a bummer. You wind up standing around for a couple of hours looking at clouds and talking to one or two hardy souls who came out anyway.

So I've been in a good mood because the weather is beautiful. A glorious clear day. Then I looked at the BoM site and 7Timer. :mad2: The forcast is: "Fine and mostly sunny before some cloud develops during the afternoon." 7Timer shows clear at 4pm, 5/8 cloud by 7pm and overcast by 10pm. Bother, bother, bother!! Looks like I should make a thermos.

[We celebrated my wife's birthday last night so I'm not too keen on pulling any corks tonight anyway.]

[pgc hunter]

You have fallen victim to the "Melbourne effect".

[AstralTraveller]

Trust me, the Cloud Coast has nothing to learn from Melbourne. Apart from regional cloud we have this lovely escarpment. It provides a beautiful backdrop to the city - you can see bush no matter where you are - and ruins astronomy. If the breeze is onshore the uplift generates cloud and if the breeze is offshore turbulence generated at the edge of the escarpment ruins the stability. I drive 45 minutes to get to a half-decent dark-sky site.

[pgc hunter]

Still, the official term for getting clouded out just as night falls is "Melbourne Effect".


I remember when I went to Port Stephens one summer it would almost always cloud up right on sunset. You'd have a brilliant day, but then all of a sudden a layer of low lying stratocrapulus rolls in and stays for the night, then clears off mid-morning.

Atleast the temps are delightful there.

[AstralTraveller]

I've used a few other terms to describe that effect. Trust me!!

[AstralTraveller]

Well, as expected, the sky was 'that which promotes growth' with occasional fuzzy sightings of the moon or Jupiter. None-the-less we had over 100 punters trying their luck. Despite the conditions there were some 'oohs' and 'aahs'. We had three scopes plus the old orange-tube C8 belonging to the Science Centre. Despite the disappointment that the skies, which had been great during the day (and are OK tonight), were lousy Lindsay comment that 'at least I feel like I've done something'. Ain't that the truth. :thumbsup:

BTW I commented to the director of the Science Cente about the 5.5" schmidt camera being sold by Satchmo. He replied that he had one. After a short rummage through the store I got a chance to see one 'in the flesh'. It's a great piece of work but, alas, one which I wouldn't use. While he was at it I had another look at his U2 camera lens. Awesome!! Simply the best large-aperture short f-ratio lenses evar made. But, again, what do you do with it? The housing is made like a brick out-house and it takes 30cm plates. I had a chance to buy one of these in the 70s and wanted to, but the few hundred it cost was too much for me. In hindsight I sort of clad it passed it up because I don't have space for museum pieces.