Shame it's a school night...

[JamesF]

I spent a couple of hours this evening working on the observatory and, as the forecast was for clear sky tonight, I left the roof open to allow things to cool down and came back indoors for a while in the hope that the cloud of gnats that had appeared nearby might get bored and wander off elsewhere.

Once darkness arrived it was obvious that the transparency and steadiness of the sky was very good, to the point that I left the telescopes for a while and just lay on the floor watching the stars and enjoying the view.  I caught a nice ISS pass early on, but was shocked at how many other satellites I saw.  On more than one occasion I think I could see three at once.  The Milky Way was very clear and bright too, right down through Cassiopeia to the north.  I even saw a really nice meteor passing south east-ish through Aquila.

I had some fiddling about with kit to do that took longer than it really ought to have done and sadly that ate into the time I would allow myself given that I have to be up for work tomorrow, but the forecast looks promising for tomorrow night too, so perhaps I can get a couple more hours in then.

James

[upahill]

It was looking a little miserable here around 10 but set up anyway, eventually cleared and had some good moments of seeing on Jup/Sat - after about half hour I stepped outside the obsy and its the clearest I have seen all year. Nice bit of milky way drizzled overhead and very crisp sky.

Really did seem like I was missing the wood for the trees and a nicer night for viewing the whole sky rather than a tiny section.

Unfortunately im traveling at 6am so had to cut short too and pack up

Going to have to catch up on your build thread too!

 

[Beulah]

So wanted to get out last night but again, early start, work, yada yada... 

[JamesF]

Something of a mixed bag this evening.  The forecast looked good all day and the sky was clear when I was outside working on the observatory this evening, but after the Sun set I could see cloud starting to build up.  The forecast had changed to cloudy when I checked, so I shut up the observatory and thought that was that.

An hour or so later the sky was clear again, as was the forecast, so I went out and opened up the observatory.  The transparency wasn't as good last it was last night, but not bad for the middle of summer.  Unfortunately it turned out to be a short session as the cloud started drifting in again from the south west around midnight, so I've called it a night.  The forecast actually says it will clear again at around 3am, but that's a bit extreme for tonight.

As well as the cloud there were a huge number of aircraft around tonight, and many quite low.  I assume there are quite a few returning to Cardiff or Bristol this evening from the usual package holiday resorts.  I got what I wanted to do done though and I saw another meteor, so I'm calling it a successful night.  I do need to work a bit on the polar alignment of my mounts though.  It's ok, but it's not brilliant at the moment.

James

[Shanalotte]

I think you don't have to think so early about which university you want to choose because it can be a wrong choice, you having immature thinking and being in a stage where you don't know what you want from life and what your preferences are. At the same time, it is obvious that it must not be too late to start looking for the desired university and profession. I personally started looking only at 16 years old. I chose Mount Kenya University very quickly because I saw how many opportunities it offers from mku.ac.ke and even if it is private and requires a lot of money, it is worth it.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Shanalotte