[ngcles]

Hi Lyinxz & All,

The sky in Sydney in terms of night-time cloudiness tends to go "off" in mid to late October and then starts to improve in late January or early February.

Within 50km of the coast there will be clear nights sometimes but a lot of the time it will be clear day and cloudy night.

If there is a breeze anywhere from northeast to south (sea-breeze) at or after sunset, it will frequently, if not nearly always clag up with lowish cloud. The air picks-up moisture from the ocean and when the temprature is dropping over land in the early evening, the dew point comes up and bang -- low cloud forms. As often as not, it's gone by 12mn or 1am (a few hrs after the breeze stops). Southerly change weather has a similar effect but more vigorous.

Much better is a light west breeze which is dry and low-humidity though thunderstorms will come with this sometimes. The best wind in spring/summer for within 50km of the coast at Sydney, is a lazy southwester. Ususally dry and moderate tempratures and reasonably stable air-mass.

The satellite is an imperfect guide in Summer particularly -- don't just look at the U.V pic, look at the visible-light pic which shows low-cloud more effectively. Don't just look at the sky, wet your finger and stick it up (to test the breeze).

Hope it is of some use.


Best,

Les D