Still Waiting for better weather

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Last night was brilliant in Adelaide, and tonight looks good too, at least up until midnight. Then back to ...

[Astro_Bot]

It was a pretty good night out tonight (Thursday) with good seeing up until about 9pm. No sign of smoke tonight.

I set up early initially for a visual session, but Saturn looked good at ~350x so I hooked up the camera and laptop and got in a few imaging runs. Hopefully, they'll turn out alright.

After that, it was back to visual and a nice tour of a few favourites.

I did notice a dramatic difference in transparency, and refraction, between low elevations and near the zenith - more than usual.

The jetstream forecast showed slower wind speed in a modestly-sized hole passing over Brissie between about 4pm and 10pm. By my estimation, that forecast was pretty accurate.

[Octane (Humayun)]

It was rubbish up on the Sunshine Coast. Come sunset, the cloud army arrived in full force.

It gave me a chance to try and get CCD Commander working.

Not quite there, yet!

H

[kkara4 (Krishan)]

Originally Posted by Astro_Bot

It was a pretty good night out tonight (Thursday) with good seeing up until about 9pm. No sign of smoke tonight.

I set up early initially for a visual session, but Saturn looked good at ~350x so I hooked up the camera and laptop and got in a few imaging runs. Hopefully, they'll turn out alright.

After that, it was back to visual and a nice tour of a few favourites.

I did notice a dramatic difference in transparency, and refraction, between low elevations and near the zenith - more than usual.

The jetstream forecast showed slower wind speed in a modestly-sized hole passing over Brissie between about 4pm and 10pm. By my estimation, that forecast was pretty accurate.

Hmm i didnt bother getting the scope out with all the smoke and nastiness around yesterday. all the stars were twinkling madly as well, so I knew seeing was poor where we are. I wonder if local conditions greatly affect the seeing compared to someone else only a few ks away?

anyway I hope this link might be of use to some people:

http://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/air/data/s...=Previous+hour

it shows visibility and general concentrations per volume unit of air for different particle sizes (click latest hour to get the latest hour of data). Earlier in the week, visibility for CBD was 7 (you can go back in time using the date ranges), which corresponded to the great conditions everyone was seeing. And of course with all the smoke around the figures have gone quite bad, especially this morning.

Astro_bot looks like your obs were inline with an improvement in visibility come sunset though!

Where abouts are you in Brisbane?

[Astro_Bot]

I've previously discussed local conditions where I am (bayside) with other locals - we seem to have a micro-climate here with unique conditions.

It seems like the smoke blew from me to you, though I figure the excessive refraction and transparency loss at low elevation was probably from residual haze/smoke.

[ianB (Ian)]

Astro bot, what weather chart do you use? I use Skippysky but would be interested to compare this to another good weather chart.

[ianB (Ian)]

From around 17:30 to 19:30 the Moon Mars and Saturn will be nice and high, i hope the conditions weill be reasonble as I will set up the telescope.
With all the problems tht i have been having with the weather i am thinking about buying a solar filter for some day time solar viewing, mind you i dont know what to expect, i.e will i just see a few little black dots nd no detail at all or a little detail around the edge of a sunspot?

[Astro_Bot]

Ian,

I use the local forecasts from the BoM and Weatherzone (the 48-hour outlook is good for cloud and rain risk indication, though it can be wrong sometimes), the BoM jetstream chart (which seems to be at least as accurate if not more so than others, in my very limited experience at least) and BoM Aerological diagrams. Plus, I stick my head outside and look up.

The charts were suggestions of others and I apologise for nor recalling who gave me the info.

Jetstream Chart
Aerological Diagrams
Example Weatherzone 48-hour Forecast

[ianB (Ian)]

Many thanks.

[kkara4 (Krishan)]

you can also use this:

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current...29,-27.96,1500

that link is for 250hPa. You can select various things by clicking on the earth button in the bottom left of screen, including the modelled height. Matches the BOM charts that Astro_bot linked, and you can zoom in an out too. Surface winds have always matched what my eyes see looking outside

[ianB (Ian)]

Thank you KKara4, that looks interesting.

[ianB (Ian)]

Set my scope up just after five pm, the moon looked lovely around 5:30 but now there is too much of a shimmer, likewise with Mars, just a hazy orange orb with a hint of polar cap or cloud?
My telescope is now sitting behind me and i have a glass of red wine in front of me. :-)

[kkara4 (Krishan)]

Originally Posted by ianB

Set my scope up just after five pm, the moon looked lovely around 5:30 but now there is too much of a shimmer, likewise with Mars, just a hazy orange orb with a hint of polar cap or cloud?
My telescope is now sitting behind me and i have a glass of red wine in front of me. :-)

no worries Ian, I went outside and did the same thing cept used my eyes and not the scope lol. mars was twinkling away.