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When is this weather going to end??

Skooby

By Skooby
in Getting Started With Observing

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Skooby

Skooby

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We have a yellow snow warning for tomorrow too. Then the evening is allegedly going to be clear from about 6pm to midnight.

I shall plan stuff, but I won't get my hopes up too high...

James

my words exactly fella when It comes to the weather planning anything just goes out the window with all this wind rain snow we got be looking at a few clear nights haven't we??

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Langy

Langy

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Well I got a couple of hours Wednesday night and then another couple last night.

Still waiting for better than partial cloud over a longer period so I can hop off down to the local dark sky and spend some hours with most of the sky visible rather than my southerly back garden, surrounded by houses.

Same forecast again tonight, but I have other things on to start with.

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Stu

Stu

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I believe you :) bright though. What us that sky safari like then?

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I think it is great, it's the main app I use, I have the middle version, 'Plus' I think. Well worth the money

Stu

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Skooby

Skooby

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I think it is great, it's the main app I use, I have the middle version, 'Plus' I think. Well worth the money

Stu

i had a look it's £20 odd on iTunes and £1.99 for the 1st app looks good though

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Stu

Stu

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i had a look it's £20 odd on iTunes and £1.99 for the 1st app looks good though

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On the App Store the Plus version is around £5.99 I think, gives you pretty much everything you need

Stu

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Skooby

Skooby

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On the App Store the Plus version is around £5.99 I think, gives you pretty much everything you need

Stu

yeh I just looked the plus version is now £10.99 ill prob still get it looks a good app thanks though.

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Langy

Langy

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yeh I just looked the plus version is now £10.99 ill prob still get it looks a good app thanks though.

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The Met Office now allows you to download its raw data allowing you to see more detailed forecasts. In detailed I mean that you get the usual 3 hour forecast but when you look on their site you specify your location. Now we all know the British weather is very changeable and that 10 miles down the road could well be a different forecast, thus either making your location either better or worse, but you don't see the other local sites. They report the forecast and record observations on nearly 6000 sites in the UK, so for better detail you could get various local sites to decide for yourself.

Anyway back to the weather, after three evenings of a couple hour sessions the weather is back to the norm with seeing the odd star or just fully overcast. Looking like that for a few days again.

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Skooby

Skooby

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Really that will be useful as just down the road can be raining and by me it's not crazy. Thanks for that. And last night I had a pretty good session thankfully the sky was crystal clear. And guess what it's overcast tonight no chance of even the brightest object back to the norm now!!

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Langy

Langy

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Here's a good example of the 3hr Forecast data.

In the graphic below the center of the circle is my home location. Each circle goes up a maximum of 20km, so 20, 40,60 and 80km maximum from my home location. In the first circle (20km) the furthest site which fits within a 45 degree radius for all 8 sections of the compass within that 20km range has been selected. Then on the 40km the sites have to fit within a 22.5 degree section and that keeps going up apart from the outer ring there were just too many sites so rather than selecting 64 i've chosen 48.

As you can see the forecast for my home location slightly differs from that next to me. If  was to step through the forecast or check the wind direction I could soon see where the weather is going.

Now on observation data when you look at the Met Office site it doesn't give it to me for my actual home location but shows me one from 10 miles west of where I live, but that data is available to download for my actual home location.

So getting the raw data gives a far better picture rather than a general forecast or observation list of the general area. Now I'm guessing all the apps just work on the location you select rather than what's around you like my graphic. The observation data could be really handy for when you are about to go out so that you can see what is around you and where is it going so you decide on just getting the bins out or the full kit. Could save lots of heartache.

post-34707-0-08916600-1393723284_thumb.j

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Kbramley

Kbramley

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This website saved my skin the other night (Thursday night) http://www.meteoradar.co.uk/ , it was crystal clear outside and my usual weather sites claimed clear skies until midnight and then only a bit of cloud. However just as I had set up I spotted on the rain radar an isolated blob of rain heading in over the Irish sea, and low and behold it absolutely threw it down for about an hour, fortunately I had managed to whip the shed over the scope and get things covered. Saw the Northern Lights though later on at midnight which was a pleasant surprise :)

The best thing about the site is that its pretty much live and minute by minute so you can see things developing.

Keith

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Skooby

Skooby

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Here's a good example of the 3hr Forecast data.

In the graphic below the center of the circle is my home location. Each circle goes up a maximum of 20km, so 20, 40,60 and 80km maximum from my home location. In the first circle (20km) the furthest site which fits within a 45 degree radius for all 8 sections of the compass within that 20km range has been selected. Then on the 40km the sites have to fit within a 22.5 degree section and that keeps going up apart from the outer ring there were just too many sites so rather than selecting 64 i've chosen 48.

As you can see the forecast for my home location slightly differs from that next to me. If was to step through the forecast or check the wind direction I could soon see where the weather is going.

Now on observation data when you look at the Met Office site it doesn't give it to me for my actual home location but shows me one from 10 miles west of where I live, but that data is available to download for my actual home location.

So getting the raw data gives a far better picture rather than a general forecast or observation list of the general area. Now I'm guessing all the apps just work on the location you select rather than what's around you like my graphic. The observation data could be really handy for when you are about to go out so that you can see what is around you and where is it going so you decide on just getting the bins out or the full kit. Could save lots of heartache.

attachicon.gifForecase.JPG

that's really handy what's it on the met office site? As surprise surprise it's raining here!!

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Langy

Langy

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that's really handy what's it on the met office site? As surprise surprise it's raining here!!

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You get it from their Data Point product. All you need to do is register and they give you and API code where you can make up to 5000 query requests each day under their fair use policy. Looking at forecast and observation data for various local sites you may find how quickly you can go through that number.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/datapoint

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