Aborted Astro Sessions

[Carl Au]

I have decided to start keeping a diary of everytime I have taken my gear outside, put it up and taken it down again without a view.

I am asuuming there is some scientific reason why its almost always sunny all day (usually up to last minute before sun down) and cloudy the second the sun is about to set?

Edited February 15, 2021 by Carl Au

[Nicola Fletcher]

It’s very frustrating Carl - lucky you have a nice portable setup! I got my first clear night last night to have a longed-for look through my 102 ED-R - Clear Outside promised me a couple of clear hours and the scope didn’t disappoint. I find this time of year very frustrating but the clear nights are some of the best of the year IMHO!!

[Ricochet]

2 hours ago, Carl Au said:

I am asuuming there is some scientific reason why its almost always sunny all day (usually up to last minute before sun down) and cloudy the second the sun is about to set?

Yes, it is because you own an astronomical telescope. If you do what I did, and buy a solar telescope, the weather will change so that it is cloudy all day as well as at night. 

[F15Rules]

I think the thing I've noticed during lockdown, and being retired and therefore having more sight of daytime tv weather forecasts, is  how many local forecasts are just plain wrong!

The national weather forecast and regional ones are so often very different, I do wonder if I'm looking at the same country?

Our local news area is large, covering an area from Sheffield in the West, Bridlington to the north east, Hull to the East, and Boston in South Lincs to the south. We live only 15 miles inland of the North Sea, and are surrounded by low hills which cause us to have a local micro climate as well. So, although I like the many sunny mornings we have here at the south of the Lincolnshire Wolds, I've now lived here long enough to know that sun in the day is absolutely no guarantee of clear skies in the evening.

Something else I have noticed, (courtesy of increasingly getting up in the night for a loo visit!), is that the sky that is overcast in the pre-midnight hours is often clear in the later part of the night. So maybe we need to look at a more flexible approach to when we observe - although for many younger observers who work or have young children this wouldn't be practical.

This season I've managed perhaps a total of just 6-7 hours of observing Orion, and it is now sinking fast in the evening sky, and with daylight hours lengthening noticeably..so I guess we just have to take any and all the opportunities we can. And for me, that includes increasingly using binoculars and a small 60mm refractor for quick 10-30 minute sessions😊.

Dave

[JeremyS]

13 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

 

Something else I have noticed, (courtesy of increasingly getting up in the night for a loo visit!), is that the sky that is overcast in the pre-midnight hours is often clear in the later part of the night. So maybe we need to look at a more flexible approach to when we observe - although for many younger observers who work or have young children this wouldn't be practical.

If you do venture downstairs in the night to look at that clear sky, don’t forget to hold the handrail, Dave 🤣

PS: nice avatar 

[Paul M]

I don't abandon sessions, they just fall apart around me

By the end I'm like a round-the-world yachtsman left clinging to a fragment of wreckage after storm. The difference is, I regroup quicker...

[F15Rules]

22 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

If you do venture downstairs in the night to look at that clear sky, don’t forget to hold the handrail, Dave 🤣

PS: nice avatar 

Thanks for your concern for my nocturnal welfare, Jeremy👍

Thankfully my bedroom is on the ground floor (I'm allergic to handrails so this was a key "what counts" factor when selecting our retirement home).

Ref the Avatar, I've been advised that the "Ageing Rocker" guitar theme has been complained about by some 70s disco fans..😂

[Soligor Rob]

Ha if you could have seen me last night, Chris my wife said as we were going to bed "oh look the sky has cleared and I can see the stars, whooosh I was into my thermals hat and boots and unlocking the conservatory doors, my scope was carried out on to the patio and yes a star, lined up towards the West, down on one knee to get focus, too late cloud cover, never mind there is another smattering of stars to the East, swing the scope round, down on one and oppps clouded over again.

This went on for about 40 mins before it dawned on me that most experienced sky watchers wouldn't even have unlocked the conservatory's doors but me being a total novice with his first telescope was devoid of this vital important information.

Still it was a good cardio vascular workout and had somehow got to 1am so pack everything away and off to bed.

is it often like this I wondered as I fell asleep?

[John]

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Ref the Avatar, I've been advised that the "Ageing Rocker" guitar theme has been complained about by some 70s disco fans..😂

From one ageing rocker to another, hold your ground !!!!

[Soligor Rob]

Rory Gallagher a true star, I took my wife Chris on our first date to watch Rory in concert,  I followed him through Taste and his Solo Career, Still have all his Albums (but now listen to him via Spotify)

Fabulous to hear Joe Bonamassa play Rory's Strat.

[Carl Au]

14 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I think the thing I've noticed during lockdown, and being retired and therefore having more sight of daytime tv weather forecasts, is  how many local forecasts are just plain wrong!

The national weather forecast and regional ones are so often very different, I do wonder if I'm looking at the same country?

Our local news area is large, covering an area from Sheffield in the West, Bridlington to the north east, Hull to the East, and Boston in South Lincs to the south. We live only 15 miles inland of the North Sea, and are surrounded by low hills which cause us to have a local micro climate as well. So, although I like the many sunny mornings we have here at the south of the Lincolnshire Wolds, I've now lived here long enough to know that sun in the day is absolutely no guarantee of clear skies in the evening.

Something else I have noticed, (courtesy of increasingly getting up in the night for a loo visit!), is that the sky that is overcast in the pre-midnight hours is often clear in the later part of the night. So maybe we need to look at a more flexible approach to when we observe - although for many younger observers who work or have young children this wouldn't be practical.

This season I've managed perhaps a total of just 6-7 hours of observing Orion, and it is now sinking fast in the evening sky, and with daylight hours lengthening noticeably..so I guess we just have to take any and all the opportunities we can. And for me, that includes increasingly using binoculars and a small 60mm refractor for quick 10-30 minute sessions😊.

Dave

There you go see. I can't trust the BBC weather forcast at all, it bears no resemblance to reality

[Carl Au]

3 hours ago, Soligor Rob said:

Rory Gallagher a true star, I took my wife Chris on our first date to watch Rory in concert,  I followed him through Taste and his Solo Career, Still have all his Albums (but now listen to him via Spotify)

Fabulous to hear Joe Bonamassa play Rory's Strat.

Yeah I have seen him too at the uni in Manchester. I always rember seeing him on Rock goes to College.

[F15Rules]

12 hours ago, John said:

From one ageing rocker to another, hold your ground !!!!

Cheers, John👍🤘✌️ (couldn't see your image though?).

I saw Rory live 3 or 4 times, and he was just brilliant, and he (along with Robin Trower, Ritchie Blackmore and of course Jimi Hendrix) just enthralled me with the sounds their Fender Starts could produce..

In the late 70s I played in a local pub band called "Dealer" and had a Japanese Kimbara Strat (a real USA Strat was, like a good scope, way out of my reach then!).

I enjoyed playing covers back then, we used to get £40 plus free beer for a gig (split 5 ways!), but we had fun and bought our P.A. from our "earnings". In 1995, for my 40th birthday, my wife and family treated me to a Fender '57 reissue Strat and case, made in Japan (like all the best eyepieces & scopes!😁) .

That's the one I'd put on my avatar, and which Jeremy couldn't grasp (🤪😂)..but I changed it back to my scope, as I suppose technically this is an Astro forum😊.

For the record, attached is a proper pic of my Strat, and my second guitar, a Marlique Reborn  series model called "Broken Wings", made in Indonesia and one which attracted me with it's interesting artwork back in 2004 when I bought it - this guitar was actually my SGL avatar for some years until I replaced it with the Tak FS128 a couple of years ago..the guitars have been pretty eye candy for years, but just in the past month I've started picking them up again and banging out a few power chords!😁.

Sorry to Carl for slightly hijacking his thread (I blame Jeremy!😁).

Dave

Edited February 16, 2021 by F15Rules

[JeremyS]

34 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Cheers, John👍🤘✌️ (couldn't see your image though?).

I saw Rory live 3 or 4 times, and he was just brilliant, and he (along with Robin Trower, Ritchie Blackmore and of course Jimi Hendrix) just enthralled me with the sounds their Fender Starts could produce..

In the late 70s I played in a local pub band called "Dealer" and had a Japanese Kimbara Strat (a real USA Strat was, like a good scope, way out of my reach then!).

I enjoyed playing covers back then, we used to get £40 plus free beer for a gig (split 5 ways!), but we had fun and bought our P.A. from our "earnings". In 1995, for my 40th birthday, my wife and family treated me to a Fender '57 reissue Strat and case, made in Japan (like all the best eyepieces & scopes!😁) .

That's the one I'd put on my avatar, and which Jeremy couldn't grasp (🤪😂)..but I changed it back to my scope, as I suppose technically this is an Astro forum😊.

For the record, attached is a proper pic of my Strat, and my second guitar, a Marlique Reborn  series model called "Broken Wings", made in Indonesia and one which attracted me with it's interesting artwork back in 2004 when I bought it - this guitar was actually my SGL avatar for some years until I replaced it with the Tak FS128 a couple of years ago..the guitars have been pretty eye candy for years, but just in the past month I've started picking them up again and banging out a few power chords!😁.

Sorry to Carl for slightly hijacking his thread (I blame Jeremy!😁).

Dave

Are those F15 guitars, Dave?

Good to see straps on them, just in case you lose your grip 😊👍🏻

[F15Rules]

The second one was a real bargain, very cheap and no strings attached!..

[JeremyS]

14 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

The second one was a real bargain, very cheap and no strings attached!..

Do you play any classical guitar, Dave? I enjoy Handel. 

[Carl Au]

3 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Cheers, John👍🤘✌️ (couldn't see your image though?).

I saw Rory live 3 or 4 times, and he was just brilliant, and he (along with Robin Trower, Ritchie Blackmore and of course Jimi Hendrix) just enthralled me with the sounds their Fender Starts could produce..

In the late 70s I played in a local pub band called "Dealer" and had a Japanese Kimbara Strat (a real USA Strat was, like a good scope, way out of my reach then!).

I enjoyed playing covers back then, we used to get £40 plus free beer for a gig (split 5 ways!), but we had fun and bought our P.A. from our "earnings". In 1995, for my 40th birthday, my wife and family treated me to a Fender '57 reissue Strat and case, made in Japan (like all the best eyepieces & scopes!😁) .

That's the one I'd put on my avatar, and which Jeremy couldn't grasp (🤪😂)..but I changed it back to my scope, as I suppose technically this is an Astro forum😊.

For the record, attached is a proper pic of my Strat, and my second guitar, a Marlique Reborn  series model called "Broken Wings", made in Indonesia and one which attracted me with it's interesting artwork back in 2004 when I bought it - this guitar was actually my SGL avatar for some years until I replaced it with the Tak FS128 a couple of years ago..the guitars have been pretty eye candy for years, but just in the past month I've started picking them up again and banging out a few power chords!😁.

Sorry to Carl for slightly hijacking his thread (I blame Jeremy!😁).

Dave

We should form a band...

 

 

[Carl Au]

I have already thought of a name  'The Refractors' 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Carl Au

[Carl Au]

None of this has anything to do with astronomy anymore does it? 

[Carl Au]

20 hours ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

It’s very frustrating Carl - lucky you have a nice portable setup! I got my first clear night last night to have a longed-for look through my 102 ED-R - Clear Outside promised me a couple of clear hours and the scope didn’t disappoint. I find this time of year very frustrating but the clear nights are some of the best of the year IMHO!!

Good arn't they. I really do think that they represent excellent value for money. I have been looking at these scopes for years on and off. I almost bought the old fl 11 achro version when I was skint a few years ago, Lyra Optics used to sell them. I bought a TAL 100RS instead.  

Edited February 16, 2021 by Carl Au

[F15Rules]

I had both the Lyra F11 and Tal 100RS, both excellent achromats..I'd say the Lyra had the better build quality, while the Tal maybe just edged the Lyra optically? Both were excellent though and so much more affordable than the ubiquitous Vixen SP102M that was so popular in the 1980s.. great memories👍

Dave

[RobertI]

On 15/02/2021 at 19:10, Carl Au said:

I have decided to start keeping a diary of everytime I have taken my gear outside, put it up and taken it down again without a view.

I am asuuming there is some scientific reason why its almost always sunny all day (usually up to last minute before sun down) and cloudy the second the sun is about to set?

....and then sunny again in the morning. It is infuriating. ☹️

[Carl Au]

I know, usually starts getting clearer again at 4 am, good transparency by 5, am leaving the sky clear as a bell by 6 am....again, just like this morning. 

[kirkster501]

I'm almost on the verge of selling up and refocusing on activities and things that I can enjoy with more regularity.  This winter - actually all the way back since June - has been almost impossible for astronomy in any meaningful sense in the UK and every year it gets worse and worse.

[kirkster501]

.......to add to that, a very kind member on SGL lent me a piece of expensive gear to test to see if I liked it before buying my own.  This was last September.  They have been hardly any occasions when I could use it since then.

Sorry for the moan but boy, there is no end in sight to it.