Xmas Lights In August?????

[JohnSadlerAstro]

I was horrified to learn that some shops were already starting Christmas stuff Mid-August. I'm wondering whether they should start permanent stocking Xmas cards and decorations. But what has shocked me EVEN MORE  is that FIRST LIGHT OPTICS THEMSELVES have started doing it too. 

You want proof? Look at this screenshot.

 

If those aren't Xmas lights I don't know what are.

John

PS. On a more serious note, how do I make sense of all this? Tonight doesnt look all that good, though I wont be able to go out anyway, Sunday night looks kind of OK, Monday could be anything, and on Tuesday it looks like DPRK nuked Chippenham (sry mods ). Does anyone have suggestions for how best to get sensible indications of *dependable* nights for imaging?

[xtreemchaos]

im a pagan , i have 4 christmases 2 for moon and 2 for sun . charl.

ps look out the window its 100% right everytime 

[geordie85]

I'm used to getting conflicting predictions between met office and clear outside so I'll always try to make a prediction myself which this website is pretty good for.

http://en.sat24.com/en

[Starlight 1]

Working out weather you can try this , in the UK we have more wind coming from the West ,so if you see a red sky with a  west wind you have clear skys that night.

[geordie85]

43 minutes ago, Starlight 1 said:

Working out weather you can try this , in the UK we have more wind coming from the West ,so if you see a red sky with a  west wind you have clear skys that night...

....at the beginning the night until clouds roll in 1 hour, maybe 2 hours (if your lucky) after you get set up 

[Uranium235]

6 hours ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

Does anyone have suggestions for how best to get sensible indications of *dependable* nights for imaging?

All you need is Sat24 really (and looking out of the window!), as forecasts are usually just a pointer to what might be (more of an alert if anything else). If you use satellite images as part of your planning, you can usually take a pretty good guess as to where any cloud is headed over the next couple of hours - apart from really low stuff which always seems to elude IR images (or its hard to make out).

http://en.sat24.com/en

 

[ronin]

The church at the cross roads of Magdalene and Chesterton fairly close to Cambridge centre had a table/stall/stand outside selling Christmas cards yesterday. Don't know if that was the first day or if they had started earlier in the month.

[ringz]

The While Lion pub in Radford Semele (near Leamington Spa) has just started taking bookings for xmas lunch, they even have a small tree up.