Viewing time

[ALZASCOPE]

Hi how long do you normally spend viewing and what time do you start

[DirkSteele]

Can vary from session to session. Sometimes it maybe as short as an hour (not always due to weather) just for a quick look, and there have been a fair number of dusk till dawn observing runs. One memorable night in Namibia ran from about 7pm till 6am the next morning. That was a fun night.

 

Start times also vary. Often it will be during nautical dark in the evening and perhaps earlier if planetary is the goal, not needing a fully dark sky. But if I have a specific target or region of sky I want to explore it can be any time of the night which best places those objects of interest. If you are getting up at 2am however, it does require a slightly understanding partner who won’t be grumpy at an alarm in the wee hours.

[Shaun VS]

My observing sessions vary from 15 mins to 2 hrs depending o n commitments, weather and inclination. My main focus is variable stars for which my main instrument is a pair of 20x80mm bins. I will often go out for 15/20 mins when things first get dark then again later in the evening. 
if I am going to use one of my scopes then  I have to be certain that it is going to be clear for at least an hour, to be worth setting up.
My longest session ever (with short breaks) was 9 hrs.

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Shaun VS

[Stu]

Anywhere from 15 mins to occasional all nighters, mainly when at star parties or away camping. I can happily observe Jupiter for hours if there is a shadow or GRS transit, or hop around deep sky objects if I am lucky enough to get under a dark sky. Longest session from home started before 11pm and ran on into daylight the next day, following a lunar eclipse and then picking up Jupiter and watching it as it got light.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

On 02/06/2020 at 09:14, ALZASCOPE said:

Hi how long do you normally spend viewing and what time do you start

Depends on the time of year. Late Autumn into Winter then it's early evening starts.

Late Spring into Summer it's late night/early morning, or if the moon is out, then I'll start lunar observing in early evening daylight.

Sessions last anywhere from an hour to all night.

In between all those times, there's those nights when the telescopes stay packed and I'll nip out with the binoculars for fifteen minutes. 

 

[John]

As soon as there is something to observe until I'm tired or the weather intervenes.

Anywhere between 15 minutes and several hours.

I'm retired so I don't have to get up for work, which helps.

 

[iapa]

Astronomical can be up to 12 hrs here

ill be out an hour earlier just to double check setup

[maw lod qan]

I find time flies by when I'm out. Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, along with a little looking for a few fuzzies, quickly turns into a couple hours.

I find a coffee urn, instead of a big mug might have to be my next astronomical purchase.

[Paz]

Most of my sessions are short, half an hour up to an hour. The longest I've observed for is probably a few hours in one go, and many sessions are very short, less than quarter of an hour at the eyepiece if I'm unlucky with a turn in the weather or (for solar in particular) if there's nothing to look at.

[Guest]

I'm fairly lazy, so 1 hour at maximum (unless there's something interesting to view).

[Girders]

With light pollution I'm pretty much only interested in Jupiter, Saturn & Mars and have a 90 minute window between a planet being above my horizon on the SE to them passing behind some trees on my SW.  Will sometimes double up with an earlier viewing of the moon if the timings work out, but 90 minutes seems a natural time limit for me.