The weather is against me

[make]

Well,

I am now proud owner of dobsonian telescope. I have had it maybe 1 and half weeks now and haven't been able to use it single time yet. 2 Times i have dragged the thing to the car and driven to a dark place about an hour just to see the clouds have rolled back in. Last night there was tiiiiiny bit of clear sky so i could try it out with moon trough my bedroom window. Ofcourse not the best thing to do but atleast i have seen trough the scope atleast once.

I must tell you....this is quite frustrating.

[PreludeToADream]

Think you've fallen victim to the typical new 'scope curse. Though the skies have been terrible all over the past couple of weeks. Since Christmas I've only got out twice and they weren't very productive sessions because the seeing wasn't great.

Congrats on the new 'scope though, Dobsonians are great.

[foundaplanet]

Yes you are correct it is quite frustrating.

You go from moments of pure brilliance to moments of total disillusionment.

Wishing you some good clear skies..

[pduk]

Same thing here My Skyliner 200P came last week, and I've set it up, aligned the finderscope, collimated... and waited. And waited.

Still, nobody ever said it would be easy!

[Tinker1947]

I just stripped my scope down and flocked it, its all back together Collimated properly i hope as the Secondary mirror is a bit of a bitch to get back to its proper position, so i carried it all out at 15:45 waiting for a star to test on, found Jupiter a star test was good, Capella should be in view about 16:30, so the clouds rolled in at 16:25, packed it all away fingers crossed for tomorrow...

[dishmop]

Told the misses that Stargazing Live 2012 was on next week. She asked if it was airing with its sister program, Cloudwatch Live.

Looking like another full week of cloud

[Zul]

Well i was lucky. When i got my scope the sky was clear and i was able to try it out.

[astromerlin]

Well you're not alone, I got a Canon 1000d for my birthday 2nd week in November and I've only imaged with it once due to the poor weather and even with the 20 or so images I took only 2 had any detail in them that was useful.

This weather has to break at some point! (biting nails frantically)

[Reggie]

Just keep looking out the window, don't necessarily plan for darksites (you lost your first chance through driving), keep a good eye on the weather sites (metoffice, metcheck.com etc.) and look at the sat images to see where the weather is going.

And don't be afraid to take the scope out if it's cloudy with clear patches, just keep a keen eye out for rain and have a very hand cover to chuck over it in emergencies Astronomy in the UK is an art all in it's own right, just got to learn to take your chances when you can.

[Pug]

About 75% cloud here. That's 25% of observable sky! I'm setting up (seriously)

[Zul]

About 75% cloud here. That's 25% of observable sky! I'm setting up (seriously)

Hehe well its better than in Lithuania...Smog is here!

[Tzetze]

I setup under blue skies this afternoon. The clouds rolled in just before sunset. I managed to get a peek at Jupiter for 5 mins just now. Here's hoping there might be a break in the clouds later.

What with cloud and strong winds, I haven't managed any imaging or observing (save for 5 mins this eve) since the 18th December.

[daf1999]

Damn, been looking at the skies for the last week or 2 whilst waiting to order the new scope and now it's cloud-tastic!

I now know why lots of people have "clear skies" in their sig!

[Andy McK]

Dont know what all the fuss is about, I managed two excelent pictures of the moon, as you can see, one even has a hypanova in it (or is it the street lamp, not sure)

But seriously, I hope the weather does improve by the 28th, looks like the South Wales meet is getting more participents, propably because everyone is fed up of being stuck inside.

Andy