Favourite season to observe?

[Varangian (John)]

What is everyone's opinion on the best season to observe? Winter? Summer? What are some of the different features of the sky that you wait for and what are they?

I enjoy the high milky way in winter, cold conditions but nice high targets away from horizons.

[pgc hunter]

Summer and early Autumn. Only time of the year when it's actually possible to get clear skies in Melbourne. Winter is a write-off, approaching Macquarie Island levels of cloudiness and daily drizzle for weeks on end, not to mention skin-penetrating wind straight off the tropical 10C waters of Port Phillip Bay and the Southern Ocean, and spring is like a crappy sequel to a crappy movie.

Oh, and in summer atleast I can talk my dog for a walk beyond the concrete path as I don't have to fear sinking shin-deep into mud

[Ric]

Hi John

I'd have to say that Autumn and Winter are my favourites, beautiful clear dark skies with a temp range of around 1ºc down to about -3ºc.

[stephenb (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by pgc hunter

Summer and early Autumn. Only time of the year when it's actually possible to get clear skies in Melbourne. Winter is a write-off, approaching Macquarie Island levels of cloudiness and daily drizzle for weeks on end, not to mention skin-penetrating wind straight off the tropical 10C waters of Port Phillip Bay and the Southern Ocean, and spring is like a crappy sequel to a crappy movie.

Oh, and in summer atleast I can talk my dog for a walk beyond the concrete path as I don't have to fear sinking shin-deep into mud

+1 on everything said.

Its purely a weather decision for me and not based on what objects are available to observe. Nothing like observing at midnight in Summer in short sleeves. In Winter I'd rather be inside in front of my fire in the company if my family and a glass of red.

[Irish stargazer (John)]

Originally Posted by pgc hunter

Summer and early Autumn. Only time of the year when it's actually possible to get clear skies in Melbourne. Winter is a write-off, approaching Macquarie Island levels of cloudiness and daily drizzle for weeks on end, not to mention skin-penetrating wind straight off the tropical 10C waters of Port Phillip Bay and the Southern Ocean, and spring is like a crappy sequel to a crappy movie.

Oh, and in summer atleast I can talk my dog for a walk beyond the concrete path as I don't have to fear sinking shin-deep into mud

Ah, I remember it well. That's why I moved to Sydney
Hasn't been much better weatherwise this year though
I prefer Winter. No mozzies to ruin an evening.

[GrampianStars (Rob)]

Originally Posted by Ric

Hi John

I'd have to say that Autumn and Winter are my favourites, beautiful clear dark skies with a temp range of around 1ºc down to about -3ºc.

Ditto Long Dark Nights, Not waiting hours for scope cool down & NO mozzies

[mikerr (Michael)]

Winter. No Daylight Savings!!

Michael.

[Poita (Peter)]

Originally Posted by pgc hunter

Summer and early Autumn. Only time of the year when it's actually possible to get clear skies in Melbourne. Winter is a write-off, approaching Macquarie Island levels of cloudiness and daily drizzle for weeks on end, not to mention skin-penetrating wind straight off the tropical 10C waters of Port Phillip Bay and the Southern Ocean, and spring is like a crappy sequel to a crappy movie.

Oh, and in summer atleast I can talk my dog for a walk beyond the concrete path as I don't have to fear sinking shin-deep into mud

Boo-Hoo!
I dream of 10° nights

My main problem in winter is stopping the gear icing up completely. It gets down to minus 10 at night here, and often a bit colder, by the time I'm packing up the birdbath has completely frozen over!

Heated socks (thanks JJJ!) and a ski-suit and balaclava keeps me warm, but it is hard to make myself get out there some nights.

Winter is great as it gets dark nice and early, and here the skies are clearer and the seeing is better. But early on people's fireplaces can smoke up the sky a bit. But if I had a permanent setup I would image more in the winter, setting up quite literally freezing gear for an hour can be challenging when it is nice and warm inside and I have unwatched episodes of Game of Thrones...

These days I prefer solar viewing, and at least that happens during the somewhat warmer daylight hours!

[Varangian (John)]

Originally Posted by pgc hunter

Summer and early Autumn. Only time of the year when it's actually possible to get clear skies in Melbourne. Winter is a write-off, approaching Macquarie Island levels of cloudiness and daily drizzle for weeks on end, not to mention skin-penetrating wind straight off the tropical 10C waters of Port Phillip Bay and the Southern Ocean, and spring is like a crappy sequel to a crappy movie.

Oh, and in summer atleast I can talk my dog for a walk beyond the concrete path as I don't have to fear sinking shin-deep into mud

Ha Ha sounds like you have to head north. I agree with you though, I can't go out the back yard in winter without getting muddy feet and it takes everything I have to get motivated to get out there in 8 degrees. We have had some beautiful very early morning skies this winter, the last new moon evening in particular was magnificient for Melbourne.

As an aside, is it true that humid conditions often make for better viewing (less disturbance through the atmosphere?)

[pgc hunter]

Originally Posted by Varangian

Ha Ha sounds like you have to head north. I agree with you though, I can't go out the back yard in winter without getting muddy feet and it takes everything I have to get motivated to get out there in 8 degrees. We have had some beautiful very early morning skies this winter, the last new moon evening in particular was magnificient for Melbourne.

As an aside, is it true that humid conditions often make for better viewing (less disturbance through the atmosphere?)

I don't think there is any real correlation between humidity and seeing. It's more to do with the speed and direction of wind in the different layers of the atmosphere, presence of the jetstream and local features.

[DavidTrap (David)]

El Niño!

DT

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

The DRY ,
Brian.

[swannies1983 (Dan)]

I have only been imaging since about Aug last year. Based on my experience so far, spring probably has been the best time to image. The milky way right overhead and still cool enough to use the dslr. Summer gave pretty clear skies but gully winds constantly spoiled the show. The gully winds continued into Autumn and the temperature was still quite warm. Clear nights during winter have been rare but it's generally pretty still when it is clear.

[syousef]

I'm a casual observer. Love late Spring/Summer for Orion, but also like early Winter (last month to about now) for the Milky way. Scorpius and Crux visible. I don't enjoy the cold though.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Over here in the Land of the Long White Cloud I think we have to take our clear skies when we can get them. As Soyousef says each season has it's celestial highlights but I guess Autumn and Spring are better as the temps aren't too bad, the night is longish and if you can stay awake you get the best of both worlds for targets.
Actually it hasn't been too bad for clear nights recently and looking good for the coming weekend so can't complain too much. Advantage of cold, clear winter is the seeing is just magic when that southerly clears the air.
And summer is pretty good cos I can just stand out there in my T shirt.

Dammit !! I like all the seasons

[pgc hunter]

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

El Niño!

DT

I'm praying and hoping for one this summer.

Made an attempt at getting out this morning, but was faced with horrible seeing and ofcourse Melbourne Cloud moved in at 2am. For those that wanted a nice crisp frosty winter morning, well Melbourne can't even accomplish that.

Today's "sunny" day has been overcast until now but has cleared now. Might jump outside for a bit and enjoy it before the next multi-week drizzle fest.

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

I'd take whenever it's possible.
Summer is nice but astronomical twilight makes things hard and winter is much better in the respect there is just so much more darkness to observe in. Then again we had an extended period at below -10°c last winter in the day time. I chickened out.