Lost my motivation

[BlueAstra]

I must admit I also feel disenchanted at times. I'm not sure what the reason is, whether it is the weather, fighting light pollution, or the fact that I've finally achieved an observatory that only needs me to switch on and point at a target remotely. After a few years intensive effort perhaps I need a new challenge.

 

Regarding the weather, I've kept an observing log since the beginning, so I recently decided to get it on a spreadsheet and do some analysis. One of the reasons for building an observatory was the frustration of setting up, cloud coming in to end the session and then having to pack all the kit away. With an observatory I now just sigh and close the roof. The results are shown below:

 

Year                                                                2009    2010    2011    2012    2013    2014    2015

Observing Days                                              48        55        54        64        51        40        32

% of Available Days (365)                             13%     15%     15%     17%     14%     11%     9%

Cloud Affected Observing Days                                            25        36        22        11        11

Cloud Affected as % of Obs Days                                         46%     56%     43%     28%     34%

Average Temp (C)                                                      4.0       7.6       5.5       7.1       7.0       7.5

Average Obs Days per Month over year        4.0       4.6       4.5       5.3       4.3       3.3       2.7

 

I tend to observe (image) whenever I can, but there is definitely a downward trend from a peak in 2012. I'm in light polluted North Manchester, and a 'day' is usually between 6pm-1am. I only go out if its clear with no cloud forecast for a few hours. So under these conditions I manage to get out 10-15% of the available nights in a year, with last year being particularly bad (9%), and this year not looking much better. Even worse, of those nights that I do get out, typically 34-56% of the nights will be cloud affected requiring an early finish to the session. The average temperature of the observing days seems to be creeping higher though, perhaps due to global warming (controversial!).

 

So someone in my location can look forward to perhaps 3-4 days a month for imaging, with up to half of those days cloud affected. Arizona here I come! One advantage of setting up every session, before the observatory, was that I could choose what I wanted to do that evening depending on conditions. If there was cloud around I would ditch DSO imaging and put the webcam on for lunar or planetary imaging, or perhaps visual only. Now everything is setup in the observatory, so its DSO or nothing. Well, I need to do something to reinvigorate this hobby or the frustration will eventually get to me.

 

Graham

 

[Gina]

I've been 100% imaging but all the frustrations of the weather and computer problems have meant I have lost the inclination for imaging, at least for the moment.  I did a bit of observing a few years ago and never got round to selling my eyepieces, including a Baader Hyperion zoom eyepiece so I've decided to try observing for a change and see if I can get my motivation back.  Observing doesn't need all the complicated software to capture the images.