A clear night tonight but...

[04Stefan07]

Yesterday I quickly setup my telescope and equipment as there was a clear sky at around 19:30. I observed the moon as it was at 16.4% visible.

Have a guess what happened next...CLOUDS :mad2:

I packed up and put all my stuff away. Just now I have been playing Skyrim on Xbox 360 and I went outside to have a look at the sky and WOW tonight is clear, not one cloud in sight!

I am hoping tomorrow there will be clear skies and I will setup my stuff in the arvo.

I think I will spend the rest of tonight eating ice cream with a special topping I made the other day and adjusting some photos I have taken in lightroom.

[ZeroID]

Sometimes you have to have a wee bit of patience and faith at night.
I find it clears in the early evening then a patch of cloud a bit later, maybe 9pm or so then it clears again as the temp drops.

Having the Obs makes it easy to wait it out. Plenty of other things to do and the house is only 15 meters away so a bit of watch and wait pays off sometimes.

[pgc hunter]

Satellite shows high cloud moving in, far off atm but should arrive sometime during the night. This scenario has repeated itself like clockwork every friggin time there is a promising night. After every bloody sunny day, the high cloud moves in just as sunset arrives.

In any case, my nerves are frayed and am completely done with this climate. Hoping to GTFO of here in the next couple of years.

[andyc]

Last night was a beauty, best transparency in ages. Saw more detail and extent in NGC253 than I've seen from Melbourne (it about filled the view with the 15mm), lost count of the nebulous patches in the SMC, saw Kron 3 (near 47 Tuc) for the first time from the 'burbs too. A couple of galaxies in Columba were surprisingly interesting (1792 and 1808), and the SN in NGC1365 was blazing away. A couple of patches of cloud wafted in but soon drifted away. Seeing was horrible (though the GRS on Jupiter was just about visible), but you can't have everything! :D

Looks like the thin band of high cloud in SW Vic on the sat (http://realtime2.bsch.au.com/vis_sat2.html?region=aus&loop=yes&images=4&allday=&start=&stop=)will scoot through early evening, and after that there's a decent chance of a clear spell (*) after dusk before any of the stuff west of Adelaide gets anywhere near.

Been a mixed bag and occasionally challenging from Melbourne with the regular high cloud visits (maybe more than this time last year?), but I've had the new scope out a good half-dozen times in its first month, as well as a perfect night at Heathcote. As Brent say, it's about taking your chances, also keeping an good eye on the hi-res satellite animations. And it certainly beats the North Atlantic for an astronomy location, much warmer too!

* No promises on the forecast, if it properly clouds up it's not my fault!!

[04Stefan07]

Why is there always random cloud cover down here in Melbourne??

When I went to Sydney earlier this year (first time) the days were cool but no clouds in the sky during the day or at night for the 3 days I was there!

[Skieswatcher]

tonight seems like a similar night. At around 5-6pm, it seemed all clear but at around 7 clouds were moving in.

[mithrandir]

That does happen occasionally. Usually around full moon in mid winter.

[pgc hunter]

Because it's Melbourne! :lol:

[ZeroID]

C'est la vie ... :shrug:

[andyc]

So did anyone in Melbourne do observing in the clear night yesterday evening with not much moon? Looked good as forecast!

[04Stefan07]

I did some before everything went wrong :(.

Started a thread in General Discussion if you want to find out what happened.

[ZeroID]

I got an unexpected clear session last night from about 8:30 till just before 11. Proved I still have some tracking issues to sort out :shrug: but got some good moon shots I'm working on at present.