The weather is mocking us!

[Ags]

If it's any consolation, the weather has hardly been better here in Holland. 

I remember people talking a decade ago about global warming making northern Europe more Mediterranean, but in practice all that sea evaporation means we're just getting more rain.

[Gonariu]

On 21/12/2021 at 20:04, ONIKKINEN said:

Ho 9 sessioni e 16 ore di esposizione da fine aprile. Sembra che ci voglia un tipo speciale di pazzia per fare astronomia in Finlandia. Ma voi ragazzi potreste trovarvi ancora peggio, quindi mi prendo quello che posso ?

In fact, with the temperatures you have in Finland in the cold season, you need to have a lot of courage to go outside. If there are + 3° outside at Orotelli I do not have the courage to take out the telescope or I make a hit and run observation (I must say that I have a slight chronic pharyngitis that does not encourage me to go out on too cold nights, at least according to the concept of "cold" that we have here in Sardinia). In Cagliari which is on the sea and has a subtropical climate "I dare" more .....

[Gonariu]

1 hour ago, Ags said:

Se ti può consolare, il tempo non è stato certo migliore qui in Olanda. 

Ricordo che dieci anni fa si parlava di persone che parlavano del riscaldamento globale che rendeva il nord Europa più mediterraneo, ma in pratica tutta quell'evaporazione del mare significa che stiamo solo ricevendo più pioggia.

Yes, global warming. Here too there is a heat wave that for this period is not normal, here in Cagliari today I saw from the car thermometer that at 1 pm it was 20º (I have been here on holiday for the Christmas holidays since 28th); my sister told me she never had to turn on the gas heater this month. In the evening I went out to take the dog out for a walk, I saw that you could see some stars, the typical winter constellations, I'll try tomorrow night to see something from the balcony of the house with the telescope, Venus will be in poll position! Before going down to Cagliari I tried to see Venus a few times from the terrace of Orotelli but, besides observing the Sun since it stopped raining (from the end of October to the beginning of this month) I did nothing else because I caught the infection on the 5th with a few days of fever and I got used to staying at home in the heat with the pellet stove that brought me the temperature to 25 °, going to the terrace at dusk at 10 ° to see Venus or to close the terrace door I do not liked it so much. Once I put out the Nexstar 8 SE and in the meantime it acclimatized I looked at the planet with my achromatic 80/400, but then I put everything inside, I didn't like the cold and the "jail" to which I was forced to undergo because I was still positive, it made me fear that my fever might return. Never mind, I will recover from now on hoping that it does not make a winter that is too rainy as it was the second part of autumn and trusting that for some years now it has been having a "winter without winter", often in the winters spent in Orotelli I woke up in the night all sweaty and had to take off my pajama jacket! My father, who was from 1933, said that as a child he saw the ice candelabra attached to the roofs of the houses, they have been there for 18 years (I used to live in Cagliari) and I have never seen them. Of course, almost every winter it happens that at least once it makes a splash of snow, in Cagliari I literally saw it with binoculars when I was a boy: I climbed the hill of Monte Urpinu with my Konus 10X50 binoculars to see the Sarrabus mountains covered with snow when it was cold (a day with a maximum of 8º - 10º when I was a boy was cold for me, I'll make you smile… ....); with the subtropical climate of Cagliari snow is very rare.

[ONIKKINEN]

13 hours ago, Gonariu said:

In fact, with the temperatures you have in Finland in the cold season, you need to have a lot of courage to go outside. If there are + 3° outside at Orotelli I do not have the courage to take out the telescope or I make a hit and run observation (I must say that I have a slight chronic pharyngitis that does not encourage me to go out on too cold nights, at least according to the concept of "cold" that we have here in Sardinia). In Cagliari which is on the sea and has a subtropical climate "I dare" more .....

Its not that bad if i just wear proper layered clothing. 1 or 2 base layers of merino wool and then whatever on top of that + a ski jacket is already good enough for down to -20 for a while. It will still be cold though if im standing still at the eyepiece, but a short hop into somewhere warm for a while or do some jumping jacks and its warm again 👍.

[Chefgage]

Plenty of cloud where I am in England. But today has been great temperature wise. I have cut the grass and I am out currently just in a t-shirt having a beer on the decking.

Although I must point out I am not just wearing a t-shirt, I have trousers on as well

[Ags]

Clear sky right now. My phone says it's raining...

[DaveS]

Well, it's not actually raining at the moment but it is foggy. Everything is drenched.

[Gonariu]

@Onikkinen. Your way to not get too cold is interesting, I will put it into practice and thus I will avoid decreasing or interrupting my astronomical observations in the bad season.
@Chefgage. In cervesia veritas! (= truth in beer!). Every now and then you need a nice beer !!!

[Zermelo]

Here's a rarity. CO has been predicting this for me over the last week, and hasn't changed its mind once:

Meteoblue agrees closely, but Metcheck has low cloud coming in around 20.00.

 

 

 

[John]

15 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Here's a rarity. CO has been predicting this for me over the last week, and hasn't changed its mind once:

Meteoblue agrees closely, but Metcheck has low cloud coming in around 20.00.

 

 

 

I've seen those differing views on what it might do tonight. I've put my 12 inch dob out anyway but if Metcheck is correct then the session will be a short one

[Mr Spock]

Sky is perfectly clear here. I feel a bit chilled though so I'm staying in and turning the heater up 

[Franklin]

7 minutes ago, John said:

I've put my 12 inch dob out anyway

Wrap up warm tonight!