Man! What's a bloke gotta do to get a clear night?

[mental4astro]

Really, I've had it upto my eyeballs right now! 13 months without decent dark skies. Last night was the clearest it's been in Sydney for months!

But, guess what? I was laid up with a nasty dose of gastro thanks to the kids! :mad2: It's ripped through their class mates, and my little tikes had it bad on Friday night. I thought I had dodged a bullet, but the bugger found me. Come on!!!

So, nooooo, no viewing a dimming supernova. Noooo viewing at all!

It's been like this for months on end. When it's clear, it's a work night. When it's not a work night, it's clouded. Or the ultimate tease, it clears around midnight when you've had enough of everything.

And the forecast for this weekend isn't looking crash hot either! :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

I've had a gut full, and I want it to end!

Thanks for the venting.

Mental. (I've got a certificate now!)

[MortonH]

:mad2: What he said! :sadeyes:

[kustard]

/agreed

[Screwdriverone]

Solidarity Brother!

Cheers

Chris

[michaellxv]

ditto,
I thought it was me loosing interest but the lack of posts in the observation reports suggest it is a wide spread problem.

[MattT]

Does that mean you are now officially certified.
Gone mental to gastro?
Matt

[Kunama]

You could always move up here to the mountains, crystal clear skies abound!!

(Oops , shouldn't have said that, probably woke the cloud-God)

[Screwdriverone]

Nice one Matt.... :lol:

:rofl:

Cheers

Chris

[rolls05]

Yea,well, try living over here and having to put up with your CRAP weather month after bleedin month. I was thinking of uprading but now see I might as well save my money.:D

[Vegeta]

My brother was spewing when he missed the Nova last night on our only clear night thanks to gastro.....literally! Man! 2012 and 2011 have been shocking years for astronomy in sydney!:mad2:

[rolls05]

Ps. My grandkid who seems to be taking after his pops in the celestial viewing department :2thumbs: told his mates that they will all be welcome to pops place and he will amaze them with his wondrous telescope skills and show them the thrice in a lifetime thrill that is the eclipse of the sun. I think it fairly safe to say dont bother taking the time of school.:rain:

[mozzie]

hi alex!! sorry to hear you have the green apple splatters...:lol::lol:sorry mate just cohldn't help myself..

weather is lovely here and am heading down to open pod for a little session tonight...but i do here you with this weather and work commitments.

[mental4astro]

Well I hope you find a dirty great big Huntsman in your eyepiece case then!

:P

:) Cheers mate.

Gone mental & gastro!

[mithrandir]

Mental, I took the StarLapse out into the back yard last night to see how it goes on my new tripod. Needless to say, even though it was clear Sydney's light pollution was up to it's usual standard.

[MrB]

Transparency was awesome here last night. SMC was easily visible naked eye.
I got a consistent reading of 20.05 on the SQM-L, the second highest reading at home since I bought it. Pretty good for suburbia.

Seeing though... well that is another thing. It was shocking.
And a work night to boot :(

[Osirisra]

Had couple nice clear nights here to but the seeing was atrocious and not to mention the blasting winds.

My gear is going rusty :(

[Davi5678]

Almost clear tonight, but not enough, and too windy:sadeyes:

[pgc hunter]

That's how it works, every imaginable cock up can and will occur on those rare clear nights.

As for 2012 and its weather, my doctor prescribed me beer to cope with this record crap year. Never seen so much cloud and damp cold wintry muck, shocking even by the standards of this notorious subarctic maritime climate.

High cloud has been my source of rage lately. Saturday was clear all day and I checked the satpic to make sure it will stay clear, but sure enough high cloud was visible on the satpic moving in just in time for sunset, and clearing by sunrise. Sunday dawned clear, clear all day and that evening yet again as the sun goes down, high cloud was racing in.

And this has been the running gag this year, my nerves are freaking frayed :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

You get 4-5 nights of exceptional seeing as I had earlier in the year.... you'll be repaying it with 1000% interest rate :rolleyes:

[AG Hybrid]

I know how you feel Alex. Last night however was excellent. Got to first light my Pentax XW 10mm.

[Screwdriverone]

Ummm, should I mention I am imaging NGC1365 with its SN right now???

In Sydney too!!!

Maybe not, people may throw things at me....:scared3:

Cheers

Chris

[mental4astro]

Well, well, well. Have a bit of a ***** and look what happens. The sky clear just enough for me to manage to spot the SN in 1365! Woohoo!

As soon as I was confident in my sighting it clouded over straight away!

"He giveth, and he taketh away" the saying goes...

Hmmm, what will happen if I really let rip? I know, the thread will get locked, of even removed, :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

[michaellxv]

I stuck my head outside and saw some stars too. Though not too many.
Dragged my scope out and the sky was terrible although seems to be getting better as the night goes on.

LP is worse than I remember, I can see everything in my backyard like it was a full moon. I could not find anything except Tuc47 and that was not anything like it should be.

Just waiting for Orion to get higher then I will go back out and see what is happening.

[MortonH]

I got out tonight! Took the 110ED out to Kuringai National Park and gave all my new eyepieces a run. Transparency wasn't great - could only just see the LMC until 11pm when it became more obvious. Had fun trying various eyepieces on the Tarantula nebula and 47Tuc. And spent some time with an old friend from the Northern Hemisphere - the Orion nebula.

Not a bad night considering the recent weather.

Morton

[MrB]

Ive been able to get some imaging done, transperancy is good, seeing better than last night but still not great. Pretty windy tho, but not really bothering me at 420mm FL :D
Trying to get the horsey but too much LP. Will give M42 a crack.

[michaellxv]

Well I did get back out there and things looked better after midnight. There must be a bunch of lights that go off at midnight. Had a look around Orion and some other bright objects that were coming up. But it was like starting all over again trying to find my way around.

[Vegeta]

Awsome!!!

[MattT]

A Pentax 10 XW ....shame on you Adrian. Where is an ES 11mm 82 degree in your signature I ask???????
Matt (check my sig)

[mozzie]

i had a nice little session last night,some small faint 14-15th mag galaxies..some nice g/c and p/n very happy...
good to see you had a chance to get your s/n alex for that brief look...

no probs with the apples :lol::rofl: sorry mate !!!!!!!!!!

[mental4astro]

Like I said, Mozzie, a dirty great big Hunstman! :lol:

Half your luck to have good skies. Might have to move up North.

Chris, how did the imaging go?

[AG Hybrid]

I had to see what the Pentax is all about. I knew no one who has one.
It was interesting to see the difference.
If I like the pentax I buy more and sell my ES eyepieces. If I don't like them I sell the pentax near cost and just consider it as eyepiece renting.

I have to be honest. Going from 100 degrees to 70 is a bit... claustrophobic.

[Screwdriverone]

Not bad Alex,

Ended up slewing around a few objects and PN I havent seen before, took some subs on NGC1365 and its SN, but there was so much muddy skyglow, they are noisy as hell.

Here is a quick and dirty stack of 30mins on the Horsehead and Flame, resized of course down to 1024 x 688 and saved as JPEG, with some noise reduction done only, no real stretching done.

Eyeing off a decent CCD I think, this noise box CMOS DSLR is frustrating me....

Cheers

Chris

[Vegeta]

This how i'm feeling about the SN in NGC 1365


126800

[LAW]

Sorry Brisbane, this weather is my fault. I have about 10 days left of my Backyard EOS trial and I've just bought a new guidecam so I reckon there's at least a week more rain :(

[mental4astro]

Talking about gear, I've got 'new' 2 scopes, 4 EPs & 2 filters that still haven't had first dark-sky light, :sadeyes:

Give us a break, oh sky Gods!

13 months straight of no dark skies! :sad::sad::sad:

And now no chance until next year, :sad::sad::sad::sad:

[mozzie]

wow you have some new gear mate!!!!!!!!!

shame about the weather

and no spiders got me the other night :lol::lol:

but scooped a couple of funnel webs out of the bottom of the pool!!!!!

[whzzz28]

Sydney threw the bad weather up to Brisbane didn't they?!

Havn't been out in almost two months now - every night i get excited to go out only for it to cloud over (day time is fine, cloudy at night).
:mad2:

Have 5 nights booked out west in January, better be good over those five nights!

[mental4astro]

Hmmm, I know of a 36" that's for sale. May be the sky Gods are cashing in early on this one??? Stands to reason, :shrug::question::rolleyes::screwy: