Record bad seeing

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Last night I went to the Science Centre to fly the astro flag at their Discovery Night. I've been doing this for about 20 years so I know that it isn't a prime observing site. I took my 15cm refractor with which under average conditions and with an OK eyepiece I can easily see the Cassini division, the rings shadow and some cloud banding (under good conditions and with the 7mm ortho it is better than that). Last night despite there not being a cloud in the sky I could not even resolve the rings. Saturn was just an elongated multi-coloured blob dancing about in the field of view. The wind a ground level wasn't too bad but higher up it must have been evil. A lot of the problem around here when there is a strong westerly is the escarpment. As the air comes over the edge eddies are set up and they really churn up the air. Later on the wind dropped a bit and in good moments you could actually resolve the existences of rings but nothing more. Perhaps it's a case of protective amnesia but I can't recall ever experiencing such bad seeing. I was torn between laughing and crying.

[Mariner (Frank)]

Same for me last night on the central coast. Great transparency, not too much wind at ground level. I tried out my new EP (TV Nag 13mm) in a 12" dob and was really disapointed.... I double checked the collimation - it was spot on. The scope had been outside to cool down to ambient temp for over 3hrs. M6 and M7 were right over head and just looked like big fuzzy globs with hardly any definition. The only consolation was that the wide field was very nice. Very sad.

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Hi Frank - yes same at Gold Coast last night.
Went out, my scope had been cooling for a couple of hours - plugged into SCP and tried to focus - whoaa.
There WAS no focus - the stars just stayed blobby right through the focal point.

Put the cover back on and went indoors.....

[pgc hunter]

This mirrors my experiences last Saturday morning. Jupiter was an unfocusable blurry blob. Back went the scope to the living room and cracked a couple of tinnies instead.

No doubt the 250mph jetstream is to blame. It's looking clear down here for tonight, but I'm not even going to bother. Too much wind and the jetstream is still roaring.

Look on the bright side, seeing this crap is as rare, if not rarer than truly excellent rock solid skies!

[Gem (Grant)]

Ditto. But I would also add that it hasn't been good for weeks.

[pgc hunter]

yeesh, I went out this morning hoping to observe Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter, with the promise of clear skies, no jetstream and calm conditions expecting good seeing.

After about 5 minutes outside under high-cloud laden skies with unfocusable stars I went inside dejected, frustrated and downright PO'd. Didn't even bother to wait for Jupiter to clear the fence.

Getting real sick of this now. Can't remember a worse year for seeing.

[Osirisra (Ken)]

Total crap over the west here too, over two months now with nothing but rain and cloud and if it manages to clear up for 5min the humidity and dew may as well be rain.

Fed up with it!

SNAFU

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Lately, when it's not cloudy up here, it's foggy, windy, or raining! or all of them!!!

Tonight looked like the cloud might rack off, but ended up being just another extremely windy night with rain followed up with with patches of spitting tiny showers

It's gotta get better soon

[Spanrz (Brett)]

Got up to take pictures at 3am, gave up at 3:01, due to heavy cloud. Anything to do with the ISS or the Shuttle, has a 90% chance of cloud. Deeply frustrating as it would have been a magical shot. (ISS/Shuttle across the moon face).