Very Clear Night Tonight!!!!

[estwing]

drove 20 mins to my dark sky site...then they rolled in:mad:

[Duns]

Patchy cloud here at the moment - I'll give it a miss tonight - looked great last night but had to take visitors out for a meal - the meal was great but to be honest I'm sorry I missed a good nights viewing

[kirkster501]

Got 90 mins in and then cloud over.... Doh.... Anyway, I should not complain, 90 mins better than nothing. Got my first view of Eskimo nebula

Steve

[Woolleson]

Just clouds here, saw Venus earlier then the fluff balls of doom rolled in

[MaxLux]

Hmmmm! My earier comments were based on an accurate 12 hour aviation forecast from the Met Office local to Lincolnshire. There has been more widespread cloud than there should have been, which leads me to conclude that too many were attempting first light tonight:( It has been hit and miss in the East Mids although the IR sat indicates it was good to the South East.

R1gel asked about where to access temp and dew point info and how this affects seeing etc. Unfortunately that info won't help with seeing as there are other forces at work:confused: What we had today was a large separation between dry bulb temperature and dew point which will tell you the relative humidity/ how much moisture there is suspended in the atmosphere. Taking this into account together with the air quality, gave some impressive horizontal visibility today (upto 70km) which normally translates to good vertical and slant visibility. Temp and dew point info together can be accessed from the Aviation side of the Met Office web site but an account is required. All METAR (Met Aviation Reports) feature two temps, the first is dry bulb and the second is dew point, this is also useful to know if your scope is prone to dewing. You need to access the observation closest to your location, or several nearby if available.

If it is of any consolation, my imaging session of Mars this eve was a lost cause:(

[heathen666]

I'll be out tonight!

Anyone from the Reading, Newbury or Basingstoke area care to join me I've got a new location in mind:

51.334456,-1.284188 - Google Maps

Grrr, wish I logged onto here before now. I would have joined you if I'd known. I headed out to the school where BAS normally meet up. Sky was crystal clear tonight. I got some good photos but I'm still having problems reading the sky maps and understanding what I'm looking at, guess it's a mater of practice.

[White230]

I finished work early last night so I thought I would pop out as it was my first chance since my new purchase. 15 minutes later the clouds roll in....

[FrankieValley]

I finished work early last night so I thought I would pop out as it was my first chance since my new purchase. 15 minutes later the clouds roll in....

No clouds for me, but after waiting for a week to use my new scope (due to cloud, obviously), I tried to screw on the focal reducer and found I couldn't. The thread on the focuser tube had metal build up on it. That went back inside to be returned to manufacturer

[coxy322]

Seeing was pretty excellent in Somerset last night. Managed to add some more Messier's to my list and also had the best ever (for my first year's opportunity) views of Mars.

However everything was icing up by 11:00pm and even my EPs were attracting dew all night long - any recommendations for a pupose EP box to store them in?

[R1gel]

Thanks for info MaxLux.

Got my new scope so no need to consider dew points for the next 2 weeks as New scope = 98% cloud

[LukeSkywatcher]

3 weeks of solid cloud now.