What happens in Melbourne 9 out of 10 times, especially when the seeing is good? You get clouded out ofcourse. Just after you set everything up. I know this crap happens to everyone sometime or another, but on this occasion I am truly pissed off.
Anyway, I was drunk but last night, Sirius was rock steady. Perfectly steady. And with the light surface southwesterlies flowing in the same direction as the high-level winds, I knew the night might be good.
Anyway, I left the scope to cool for about an hour and afterwards I observed the trapezium but the stars were completely distorted, flaring and unsatisfactory. So I let the scope cool for another hour while I went and grabbed my atlases, rug, eyepiece cases etc.
After a total of 2 hours of cooling I observed the Trap again, at 357x. I was pleased with the crispness of the focus, nice airy disks with only a small amount of 'play' in the diff rings and barely a hint of that flaring that occurs when there are tube currents. SO the plan was to observe some doubles until Saturn and the moon rose high enough. But in typical fashoin, I was CLOUDED OUT by that famous, exclusive to Melbourne **** that ALWAYS seem to glide off the ocean on the BEST NIGHTS
Tonight looks like it could be okay, with winds at 300mb and 850mb flowing in the same direction, if a little different in speed. Surface winds are expected to be almost non-existant.