I have heard some horror stories on the weather today in some places around OZ , sorry about that .
Here is the weather we got today here in Rockingham , it was cloudy to start but cleared almost immediately for the whole eclipse , great stuff .
For all the poor souls that were clouded out , these are for you .
That's me and a friend clowning around in the last shot .
Yes we had rain and overcast conditions, then near midday it started to break and we had almost perfect conditions for the eclipse, it was only the wind and very cold temps which made viewing uncomfortable, but we got through it okay.
I have heard some horror stories on the weather today in some places around OZ , sorry about that .
Here is the weather we got today here in Rockingham , it was cloudy to start but cleared almost immediately for the whole eclipse , great stuff .
For all the poor souls that were clouded out , these are for you .
Between the time I left home and arriving at our observing site - about 2km away - the sky went from clear to cloud. Ken, Phil and I sat back and watched the clouds roll by. I got a couple of shots through my solar filter of clouds backlit by the sun.
Full overcast, raining, plus I was at work. A trifecta if there ever was one. Oh well, I did get perfect conditions for the 2012 eclipse and I saw the lunar eclipse a couple of weeks ago on my way home from work so I'm not too fussed.
I sort of feel guilty... Since I got into astronomy in December of last year the viewing conditions in and around Sydney have been awful. I think it is all my fault. Sorry!
Sky looked very promising from Tahmoor until about 30 mins before first contact, but I could see thicker cloud approaching from SW. Got in the car & drove 30km north, where I managed to see the first few minutes of the eclipse before the cloud got there too. Expecting nothing more, I got a great shot through a 1-degree gap in the cloud just above the horizon and near max eclipse on way home. That alone was worth the travelling & fumbling.
Weather ordinary.... Operator competence - worse....
I've only used my Coronado scope in anger once, and remembered having trouble focusing it - I hadn't pulled out the draw tube from the focuser....
So yesterday I thought nothing for a while when I couldn't focus, then pulled out the tube - still couldn't focus.... nearing desperation as the sun descended towards a nearby rooftop amongst the clouds, realised I'd left the dang lens cap on!
)
