Clear skies, Where have you gone?

[nickb2513]

It seems to me that every night I leave work and the skies are perfectly clear. I get home, get sorted, get my daughter to bed and when I look out the thick black clouds have rolled in and completely covered the entire sky!  This seems to happen every single night! Its not even the curse of the new equipment as I haven't bought anything for a while!  Will I ever see a clear sky again? Hmmm?

rant over...  

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Just blame all your fellow amateur astronomers who keep buying kit

[Fozzie]

My bad, I bought a new mount and focal extender... so most of west Yorkshire and part of north is clouded out until at least Saturday.  Many apologies...

Ta

Fozzie

[Grotemobile]

Tonight here on the South coast looks
promising. That has just put the mockers on it.  

Steve

[nickb2513]

Damn you Fozzie...   lol

[Qualia]

What I find annoying is that most of February was quite pitiful - snow stroms, gales and freezing winds and then quite suddenly it begins to brighten up. Temperatures are rising into the 20ºs, clouds are dissipating, skies are deep blue in the day time and crystal clear at night. Galaxy season is upon us and I can set up and begin after work around midnight

So what's the problem?

Almost two weeks of moonshine to contend with Don't get me wrong, I love the Moon, but why is it only ever clear when there's a big fat Moon about?  

[ghostdance]

It is intriguing, that full/nr full Moons seem to coincide with more cloudless skies...I have wondered if this seeming effect is to do with some sort of 'tidal'  lunar influence but that's only my naive speculation, so a full Moon brings analogous low cloud tide as it were.  Not meaning a correlation between marine tides/clouds of course

It's a fascinating subject that I'm sure better minds than mine have considered. If there is any research on this, I'd love to know...

grrr, typos!

[Starlight 1]

Is it just me on a nice sunny day blue sky and just as the sun start to set I all ways see lots of clouds for about a hour.

[Viewmaster]

For an astronomer to expect clear nights is like 

expecting a politician to answer a question.   

[Browny]

Mid week I took delivery of a motor drive. Got it rigged up to the mount and sky has been overcast /wet/windy eversince in North East Linc's:-(

[dannybgoode]

Unless its raining I've taken to getting the scope out and cooled just in case. Last night for escape looked a write off but there was an hour or so between 830 and 930 where there was enough break in the clouds to get some Jupiter and M42 time in.

As the scope was ready to go it meant I could grab the door time that was there.

Another good reason for have some binoculars handy too. Grab and go when there's a break in the clouds.