Is bad weather driving people away from Astronomy?
The east coast of Australia, from north Queensland right down the coast has been subjected to what seems to be continuing cloud, rain, storms, east coast lows, cyclones (in QLd) and generally miserable weather for what seems like the last year. There seems to be a decline in the attendance at various Star Parties, and dark site trips.
What effect is this having on amateur astronomy? Have your changed your observation and/or imaging time as a result of the weather? Have you packed it all away until things improve? Is this the future, and a legacy of climate change affecting what we can do?
It HELPED me sell last year during times of family crisis - it was one factor that helped me justify selling the gear.
I did my first imaging in 6 months 2 nights ago (and what a night it was! PERFECT seeing, and I could naked eye observe MANY DSO's that night from suburbia). When I turned my mount on, the HC asked the date.... the displayed last date turned on was 26/09/2014!
I had switched to visual (in sucker holes!) from my upper balcony for a few months - and enjoyed that immensely - so much so that ANOTHER recently acquired non-motorised GP mount now comes down next to it's imaging brother and I do visual with my Little Tak whilst the Bigger Tak takes pretty pictures.
Can I mention the lovely clear cold nights QLD has had? Looks OK for tonight too, apart from the wind.
Last new moon was 100% cloud cover and i mean 100% and we had 25-29 scopes out to our dark sky evening with about 60 people. I can't speak for all areas but we seem to be doing fine.
Been an absolute veritable basket case here in Hellbourne this year. I have been out may be twice, both nights complemented by poor seeing ofcourse.
The weather itself I can't say enough bad things and four-letter words about, even by Melbourne standards. This year has been cloudy and exceptionally cold. April and we are seeing typical July temps with the standard wintry antarctic winds, messy showers and cloud.
Then there has been those DAMN burnoffs every single clear day/night over the last few months.
Agreed, the weather has been crap. Coupled with having a job where I mainly work nights it has meant virtually no observing over summer. On the plus side I have read a lot of books, and have organised a lot of seasonal observing lists to put some structure into my future observing sessions. Coming from the UK 20 years ago the recent weather has been pretty much what I hoped I had left behind!
Not me. It just makes me enjoy clear nights even more. Friday night was reasonably good outside of Sydney. Used the opportunity to check out the lobes of Homunculus at 250x. Made up for a lot of waiting.
Lewis - I saw you mention the FC100 in another post of yours - how are you finding it, specifically for visual?
The old Tak FC-100 I find absolutely superb visually, and it is certainly no slouch for imaging as well - the image below is a 20 minute (2x10 min combined) H-a shot of a section of IC2944, using the specific reducer (makes it f/6.4)
Anyway, we now return you to the original topic
And to keep it on topic, this was shot 2 nights ago during QLD's MAGNIFICENT night skies I hope we are returning to our old winter weather patterns in QLD... like 2.5 months of clear cold sky
The weather has been perfect for me even though it is getting a bit chilly but at least I don't have the mozzies and the bugs to tend with this time of year
it's my job that gets in my way
I would love to do more astronomy but I only do it on the weekends now because if I did it during the week I would never get up for work haha
Can't even look at the sun down Geelong way
and yes Jen work gets in the way, in my case permanent afternoon shift for a while so weekends only and they've been pretty sad.
It's been giving me time to make little projects and improvements though.
During the "big wet" around 89-90 we had 18 months in a row of bad weather, it rained on 26 consecutive weekends. At that time I got rid of all my astro gear to pursue a different hobby.
And ever since I've been reluctant to spend much on equipment that might be used a couple of times a year, there's little point.
When I reture to somewhere with better weather I might be more keen.
Apparently there is now a 70% chance of an el nino event. This means, potentially, months of clear skies and low humidity. Another drought is possibly around the corner. Remember the one from 2003 to 2009? So I think there are some good times ahead for astrophotography. I wouldn't sell anything yet. the USD being so high as well it would be difficult to replenish telescope gear ontime.
When I retire to somewhere with better weather I might be more keen.
Ha ha, I'm retired now and thought I had a good spot but often the proximity to our children and grand-children limit going too far away to live. Access to health services can also be an issue. And living in a wonderful astro site might get boring after awhile as we come to expect great conditions. It's all a trade-off.
The weather has been perfect for me even though it is getting a bit chilly but at least I don't have the mozzies and the bugs to tend with this time of year
it's my job that gets in my way
I would love to do more astronomy but I only do it on the weekends now because if I did it during the week I would never get up for work haha
That purple text is making my poor eyes BURN!!!!!!!
It all depends how much commitment and cost one has dedicated to the hobby and the (perceived) opportunity cost this creates as a result - time and money that can't be spent on other stuff. This potentially leads to a minimum number of clear nights being required to make it all worthwhile. Where that threshold is will be different for everybody, but when it's reached (from the wrong direction), I'd imagine it to be sad moment indeed.
One strategy that has worked for me is not taking the whole thing too seriously. I've bought my gear knowing full well that it might not see starlight for months on end, but that's fine. There are plenty of other things to do in the meantime.
Looks OK for tonight too, apart from the wind.
