unrelenting cloud cover

[lolthrash (Oliver)]

So as I am pretty new to astronomy, in the past I haven't really been "regularly" going out to see if the sky is cloudy or not, I guess it was fairly trivial information prior to wanting to see into space...
But now that I have at least a basic telescope, some decent binoculars and a bit more of an understanding of the night sky, I have started to notice just how regularly the sky above me is completely covered by thick clouds.
It's been literally about 6 days straight now, maybe more, of complete cloud cover with no chance at all to star gaze. Quite frustrating!
I guess my question is whether this is just what happens in Australia, or across the globe in general? Perhaps just in my part of Australia (Newcastle)? Or perhaps just this time of year? Maybe none of the above, maybe we're just in an extended stormy/rainy patch?
I know that I was a member of slooh.com telescopes for a few months and the scope in Australia was offline more often than not due to adverse weather conditions, and now it is permanently closed due to such conditions...
I really have no idea at all about any of this, so if anyone can understand whatever it is I'm waffling on about and can shed some light, I'd be truly appreciative!

[RobF (Rob)]

Yeah, it sure is frustrating on the East coast at the moment Oliver. I think as long as we have a series of Highs sitting in the Tasman tossing moist onshore air at us we'll continue to have lots of nights like this. Fingers crossed the East coast may dry out a little in coming months, but La Nina seems to still be in force at the moment alas.

[Brian W (Brian)]

Try it over here in the Philippines, 2 decent nights in the last 4 months.
Brian
PS I think I need a refresher course in star hopping
B

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by Brian W

Try it over here in the Philippines, 2 decent nights in the last 4 months.
Brian
PS I think I need a refresher course in star hopping
B

You are doing well I havent seen any decent nights where the sky was clear for more than 1/2 an hour hardly time to set anything up and that is over the last 12 months

[gregbradley]

I have been in this hobby now for about 6 years. It varies from year to year. Up until about a 1.5 -2 years ago we had been having a long drought. For that time the sky was clear fairly often. In the last 9 months to a year it has been very cloudy and overcast. Much more than normal.

You will find summer warmer months are cloudier than winter cooler months.

Bureau of meterology actually has charts of this sort of thing. As I recall August is the clearest month with most number of clear nights. And either Jan of Feb is the worst with the most number of cloudy nights.

It does also depend on where you are. Coastal may be more likely to be cloudy than inland a bit.

I live in the beginnings of the mountains and it tends to be a bit more cloudy than down in the plains.

I also have a dark site weekender on the western side of the Great Dividing Range. It will be far more often clear than the eastern side.I would drive from overcast Sydney to there and be greeted with crystal clear all night no cloud skies many times. Occassionally that reversed but not for long (maybe 6months to a year).

So weather patterns shift around a fair bit making a clear statement about it not so easy.

Certainly at the moment perhaps due to La Nina we are experiencing the least number of clear nights I have seen in the last 6 years and it is not typical so take heart.

In July/August you can get a run of clear nights and get maybe 9 in a row.

In Jan at my dark site - this year, whilst Sydney was cloudy all the time I got 11 out of 12 nights were clear, most of them completely clear all night.

Western side of the Great Dividing Range - that's where it seems to be clearest more often and the prevailing weather comes from the west which is from the outback or Western Australia.

Greg.

[Brian W (Brian)]

The western side of the great divide... does it have a university where my wife can teach?
Brian

[RobF (Rob)]

Originally Posted by Brian W

The western side of the great divide... does it have a university where my wife can teach?
Brian

At least you can still look on the bright side of it all Brian...

[lolthrash (Oliver)]

Welp, I sure ate my words tonight, besides not great seeing the sky was/is absolutely perfectly clear. even managed to show my mum saturn for the first time in her life, she was blown away