Clouds

[Albenn]

We have had the first clear weather today in for god knows how long with the forecast predicting clear skies for tonight.

Having caught my first sight of Saturn last year and being well impressed with that, I eagerly set up when I got home from work knowing that Jupiter would be visible even with the full moon so was fully expecting another impressive 'first' in my little scope.

I got set up, found Jupiter, and was not disappointed. I could make out 2 orange hued equatorial bands and 4 moons. Not bad for a quick 20 second look and I couldn't wait for my eyes to dark adapt and the scope to cool down to see a little more so I could get the magnification up a little.

Guess what happened next? Cloud! Then even more cloud, but only where I was interested in looking! The rest of the sky was pretty clear - which was really annoying as I had waited so long to get to see anything for months. I waited for the cloud to pass but all that happened was that it got cloudier so I gave up and came inside.

I was quite impressed at Jupiter though in the brief time I got to see it, not as big a wow factor as my first view of Saturn but still a beautiful sight nontheless. I just hope the weather settles soon and the b****y clouds stay away!

[Mr Q]

I have tried observing on partly cloudy nights and at first it seemed to work out well enough when I located an object and waited to see it between the clouds passing ever so slowly by...well, a half hour later I had had it with the sneak views every now and then and gave up

At least I tried but ended up getting more angry than if I had just decided to forget observing that night. A few tries again in the weeks to come also proved to be a waste of time and since then, I have never fell for the bait of trying to observe between It's....like head banging against a brick wall

[Albenn]

I agree Mr Q. I too have learnt my lesson regarding cloudy sky observing and will stick to relatively clear skies only.

By the time you get set up, get dark adapted and acquire the target, the clouds roll in. Then the temptation is to go back inside to get warm (ever noticed how the cold doesn't seem to affect you so much when you're busy observing?) That then ruins your dark adaptation so when you do get back outside, you have to wait a while before you can see detail again by which time the clouds roll back in and you're back to square 1!

Still, a couple more weeks should see the weather settle - fingers crossed