Another Hundred Miles

[Albireo380]

This B****y Country and its rotten Weather.

It has been a beautiful crisp, cold day today in Glasgow. The temperature hovered around zero all day and the blue skies promised good seeing tonight. About time too, I thought, the last clear night was 3 weeks ago and I have new "toys" to play with.

I set off the 25 miles to my dark sky site north of Glasgow at about 5pm - at 5.30pm (after 20 miles) I realised I could no longer see stars out the windscreen and stopped - Cloud (Grrr!). So back to Glasgow. Then e-mailed a couple of guys who were going 35 miles SE of Glasgow and said I would join them about 8.15pm. I set off just after 7pm under clear skies (I could even see stars through the Glasgow light pollution). At Bathgate the cloud rolled in (25 miles from home), so I turned round at the next motorway intersection and came home.

All in all I have driven about 100 miles and spent about two and a half hours in the car. For nothing

This is becoming a habit.

I am away to get a drink and take up something that is not weather dependant - like crochet, or knitting.

Browned off.

Tom

[geoff_k]

Tom

Join the club. Sorry to hear of your wasted journey.

I have set up (at home, luckily) for two nights running. Clear when I am setting up, and as if by magic, the clouds appear when I try and do something.

Surely to goodness it must be possible to get one clear night in this Godforsaken country and not at Full Moon either.

I can't be the only one who is beginning to wonder whether this hobby is worth the hassle. The weather is just impossible. I know we astro folk like to moan, but the conditions have been rubbish for so long we have good reason to do so.

[Doc]

Emmmm

My wife knits.....

All the time :laughing2:

[gary1968]

I was one of the 2 guys Tom was talking about. Brian and myself waited for around 1.5 hours hoping that the sky would clear, it didn't so we gave up at around 10:30.

At least we got his RDF aligned on his new scope, we used the lights on the Harthill transmitters as that was all we could see, aaarrrgggghhh!

Neither wonder folk take drink!!!!

Gary

[lunator]

Tom

You have my sympathy.

It was supposed to be completely clear in London last night but I manged about 3 hours.

I was just tracking down M1 when the stars disappeared in the eyepiece and when I looked up the sky wasw 100% cloudy....

Cheers

Ian

[barkis]

That kind of dedication deserves better, and I hope you do get some good skies soon.

It's a PITA when you've driven miles, and a kick in the teeth is all the reward you get.

Try not to be disheartened, it will happen for you, and when you have tasted those great conditions, you will forget the wasted journeys.

Ron.

[lulu57]

Am similarly miffed about cloud in the West Midlands.

However, my saving grace is tropical fishkeeping. Some of my kribs and platies have been breeding and they've been eating my plants too - so there's a fair bit of pruning and selective feeding to be done. Fishkeeping's got that same kind of addictive hook to it - some of the water chemistry stuff is quite tricky to manage, and there's always the challenge of keeping delicate fish.

But there are fewer star clusters involved of course.

And not many nebulae.

And the gadgets aren't as good.

D'oh!

[narrowbandpaul]

thats the thing with scotland...if its a clear day, then 90% of the time, i get fogged out in stirling.

simple answer...leave this godforsaken hellhole of a country, some where more pleasnat than here.

like afghanistan.

I am seriously unimpressed by the weather we get here, and I want out!

dont worry, its spring soon

[Astroscot2]

Tom, I feel your pain, recently I headed off down to Loch Doon in Galloway to my dark sky site, clear as a bell all the way to Dalmelington, then clouded over - On the way back it cleared from Ayr till I got home 110 miles wasted. Its been quite misty / foggy this winter. Ive yet to complete a single image with my new kit and take the subs I intended to take, Im always cutting short my imaging sessions due to cloud intervening or mist spoiling the transparency - Taking into consideration it takes me over an hour to set the scope up and start imaging its turning into another frustrating season. Last year 1 took 2 images between Jan and April. You know im still trying to get an image of M45 since OCT, even last night the weather was looking good and again I had to comprimise the total number of subs due to cloud, I just know the image when processed wont be as good as I had wanted, It also cleared again once Id packed up ;-)

The wife hears me complaining when it clouds over after another lengthy set up time, Ive convinced her an observatory is being built in the Summer- I will want to keep my kit portable as you cant beat a good dark sky for imaging.

Do you guys every head down Ayrshire / Galloway ?

Mark

[Albireo380]

We do sometimes go down to Loch Doon Mark, but Galloway is a long journey. But if you can absolutely guarantee a clear, dark sky, then I am sure a few of us would travel down.

Re the weather - is it my imagination, or has 2007 and 2008 had worse astro weather than the few years before? My observing time seems to have shrunk, and I try to get out most clear nights (I have a very forgiving wife - or perhaps she just likes getting rid of me ).

Tom

[scotastro]

Need to come further south to South Ayr or Galloway, it has been clear here for the last 2 nights (all night) and will be clear tonight too. 11 clear nights in December so far.

Mike

[Astroscot2]

Tom that's the problem, cant guarantee anything. Mike, I hope to head down on Tuesday night , tonight is looking good but as usual something conspires against me. fingers crossed for the remainder of the week.

Mike, it would be good to have a contact down your way to check that its a clear night .

[scotastro]

Astroscot2 PM me

Mike

[beetlejuice]

Hi Tom

Yes, I had the scopes all set up that night too...and had to take them all back in again. Actually it cleared up (clouds with gaps) about 12.30am-ish so I got some bino viewing in. Clear tonight though so all set up and ready to go.

Bob