Victoria may get a glimpse of the sky tonight

[ballaratdragons]

Just checked the latest forecast for here and it is getting better every time I look.

It appears that most of Victoria may experience a strange phenomena known as 'clear sky'.

Looks good so far :) Here is Ballarats chart for this evening.

[chrisp9au]

Just in time for a nearly full moon!

Cheers :thumbsup:
Chris

[ballaratdragons]

yes Chris, but I'll take what I can get at the moment :sadeyes:

Oh well, I can do my Astrocast 'Live' broadcast of the Moon all night :lol: :(

[Alchemy]

Pfffft gone. Cloudy here.... As usual

[Alchemy]

Just had a look at the mets website and satellite image.... You're shot too.

[vespine]

Sorry everyone... This is probably my fault. Not a new telescope, but my fiance and I have just bought a house out on the fringes of Melbourne at "The Basin".. About 40km east of Melbourne near the Dandenongs. The sky "just" starts to get dark around there. We moved in last week, attached is the photo of our view out the back, my telescope is next to the back door waiting for a peek through the clouds, so I've probably jinxed us all for at least a few more weeks ;)

[TrevorW]

Surely this is a hoax listing, it'll never happen

[DavidU]

Grey sky's YET AGAIN!

[ballaratdragons]

Yep Dave,

Last night was a flop!

But I had lots of good company to share the flop :lol:

[mithrandir]

Ken, you got more moon last night than Sydney did.

[ballaratdragons]

Which tells me that Sydney had none :P

[DavidU]

Thanks for all the effort you put in last night ken.

[ballaratdragons]

Your welcome Dave. Sorry I couldn't show you more.

Next time hey :thumbsup:
And thanks for sticking with me in there :)

[pgc hunter]

Sunny afternoon forecast for Friday night :thumbsup: Looks like it might be a goer. Might be at work though....but need the dosh to buy more toys :D

[pgc hunter]

Sky clearing up here, which is surprising as the forecast said showers. Satpic shows the band of scattered cloud over us is likely to clear in the next few hours... and skippsky and 7timer are favouring largely clear conditions tonight...:question:

Thinking about dusting off the scope and going for a surprise observing session woooo

[DavidU]

........the sky is a funny blue colour !:thumbsup:

[Roobi]

lets hope this sudden burst of grey cloud passes quickly..... It's raining in werribee now. Not ten minutes ago, there were some nice areas of blue. Now just cloud. :(

[erick]

Band of clouds and sprinkle of rain passing overhead now. Hopeful of clear and calm behind that for tonight. Looks like Moon and double stars from the backyard on the agenda?

[pgc hunter]

Few convective showers around, but there's a lot of clear behind it.... see here: http://realtime2.bsch.au.com/vis_sat.html

I think we'll be in for a few hours of clear tonight, especially as convection loses its heating energy. The stuff behind it looks like it's a few hours away yet.

[richardda1st]

Time to setup and prey.:question:

[pgc hunter]

I can already see clear sky down on the SW horizon from my place... and satpic looks pretty good. Yeah I think we'll get a couple of hours of decent viewing atleast :thumbsup:

[Cloudyagain]

It's virtually completly clear down here in the south west so the rest of Victoria should be the same.

Haven't seen stars for weeks, tonight daughters 18th birthday party!

Neale.

[pgc hunter]

Yeah I'm gonna be setting up. Good slot of clear sky on the way. Just gotta clean up my Pomeranian's dung from the backyard then it's gigitty time !

[DavidU]

Raining here AGAIN.

[ballaratdragons]

I'm setting up to hopefully Broadcast for the few good hours we will get.

Sky is clearing up now, and SkippySky says I have until about 9:30pm.

I'll see how much I can squeeze out of it.

[pgc hunter]

Scope is outside now and sky looking good! However, the cable connecting the jump starter to the scope has disappeared off the face of the Earth so now I cant run the fans and dew heaters

[mill]

Just clouds here :violin::evil2:

[Liz]

Good luck all!!
I think we have had the worst viewing year up here for ages!! Usually pretty well fine from March - November, then cloud, but been cloudy regularly all bloody year!!
Clear skies for other southerly aussies. :thumbsup:

[erick]

Got 20 minutes of Jupiter and Uranus, then clouded over. At the same time I lost power to my mirror box and above.

Packed up - a bit of electrical investigation tomorrow.

[pgc hunter]

Just packed it in, Got nearly 3 hours of observation time here. Lots of intermittent cloud, but workable. The final blow was dealt halfway through my Jupiter sketch....

Seeing was sub-ordinary but the views seemed to improve as the evening wore on, but that's probably more due to the mirror sloooowly cooling down.

Spent the entire session on Jupiter and Youranus, got some pretty complex detail on Joop at 205x towards the end of the session. Could do 256x at times aswell, but touch and go as far as seeing was concerned.



How were the views?

Sorry to hear about the electrical probs, in my case coincidentally the cable which connects the jump starter to the scope is apparently no longer in this universe, so I could not run my fans and dew heaters. I was getting delta temps of up to 4C at the start of the session, decreasing to 3C with much difficulty towards the end..... and even with that the views were noticably improving.

Those fans are invaluable!

[ballaratdragons]

Didn't clear here :sad:

Stoopid weather sites :mad2:

[pgc hunter]

Full clear here at midnight.... bugger me right after I pack it in. Seriously looked like the final blow just before 11 when a thick layer of drizzly type cloud moved in.

Looks like it'll remain clear aswell.

[DavidU]

Had Jupiter quite nice at 250X. Running the fan hard to see if I can push it harder. Best view of Jup for a long time.

[richardda1st]

Datwasgoood4achange.:thumbsup:
Bad luck Ken.:P

[pgc hunter]

Seeing was quite the rotter here, but did get a few good moments on Jupiter at 256x but 205x was much better, with rather complex detail visible. Full clear now....bugger overcast a couple of hours ago had me fooled....lol

Missing the Europa transit :(

[Alchemy]

Best view ???? It's the only view for a long time:rofl::rofl:

The wifes Not well so I went to bed before it cleared:sadeyes:

[erick]

just caught the end of Ganymede transit so something interesting seen.

[DavidU]

LOL, well yeh !

[ballaratdragons]

How's that!

Today has been gloriously sunny and clear as a bell, ALL DAY! :cool:

Now, as evening approaches, so does the cloud :bashcomp: :sad:

[DavidU]

6.40pm and just had a good look at Venus through the 12" at 224X. Jeez 2 nights in a row ! I don't know if it will last................

[erick]

Yep, just showed my wife Venus - She said - "Oh the Moon". She was surprised when I pointed out it wasn't. Scope is set up tracking Jupiter. We have folks over and I'll offer a view of Jupiter around 9pm when we are finished with other stuff. But cloud is creeping in. :sadeyes:

[DavidU]

There is a nice Io shadow transit for the next 1 1/2 hours. Seeing is ordinary

[Alchemy]

Melbourne radar shows showers approaching, city and east suburbs are going to get wet, moon will be up soon......
Yep, great hobby this Astro thing in Melbourne.

[Jen]

Yep looking good here tonight :thumbsup::thumbsup: Just playing around with the bino's :D

[pgc hunter]

the weekend looks pretty sweet so far....and with the moon well and truly outta the way. Bring it on :party:

[ballaratdragons]

Last night ended up being a stunner! Clear as a bell after the rains left around 8pm.

Strange though, the forecast for last night 10pm till 9am today was for Cloud and rain. :shrug:
Just as well I kept watching the conditions outside or I would have missed a great night.

It's a conspiracy!!!

[Roobi]

finally got out very late last night after the clouds shifted and managed a quick squiz at jupiter with my new eps. Pushed the mag a fair bit, but got to see the pinkish band for the first time ever. wrapped as.
:D

[pgc hunter]

Extraordinary transparency here in SE Melbourne atm, the Magellanics are vivid direct vision objects, the usual light pollution to the NW is barely showing its usual unsexy self and stars are not twinkling anywhere near as severly as usual so seeing must be decent... I should be out there but just got off work at midnight so resigned myself to a few stubbies and a steak instead :)

Hope some of you vics are making the most of tonight!

If there's a repeat of tonight tomorrow night I'll be out after work with the 120st sweeping the summer milky way :cool:

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Yawwwnnnn.
Just finished a clear 6 hours (less tea & biscuits) at the eyepiece. Great views of everything for a change. Cold as tho'. Pleidies in particularly good form for some reason. V. Happy!