I Couldn't Do It!

[Sunshine]

Madness! I came back from my in laws tonight at 11:30 and put my scope out to cool, I mean warm as it sits in my basement where the house is air conditioned and it gets even colder down in the dungeon. 

Once I was ready to observe it was midnight and I couldn't do it! wiping sweat off my forehead in 36 degrees with humidex factor, at midnight! my eyepiece would fog up from the heat radiating off my face.

This is crazy! I cant recall it being so hot at night, I know in Europe there has been some awful heat waves recently, has anyone else had their observing session ruined by the heat? unreal. Summer days can reach into the high 30's here and I'm ok with that but nights usually cool off, usually.

Edited August 7, 2022 by Sunshine

[NGC 1502]

Never had conditions like that!!  

On rare occasions my scope has had to warm up rather than cool down when the outside temp had changed fast due to rapid weather change.

At the other end of the temperature scale I’ve never had sessions ended due to being cold myself.  But on a few occasions the dew got so bad that my Newtonian primary dewed up.  The secondary dews up more frequently but I can usually sort that with a dew gun pointing down the focuser.

Well done for setting up at 11.30pm, definitely done similar to grab an unexpected clear sky👍

[RobertI]

3 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Madness! I came back from my in laws tonight at 11:30 and put my scope out to cool, I mean warm as it sits in my basement where the house is air conditioned and it gets even colder down in the dungeon. 

Once I was ready to observe it was midnight and I couldn't do it! wiping sweat off my forehead in 36 degrees with humidex factor, at midnight! my eyepiece would fog up from the heat radiating off my face.

This is crazy! I cant recall it being so hot at night, I know in Europe there has been some awful heat waves recently, has anyone else had their observing session ruined by the heat? unreal. Summer days can reach into the high 30's here and I'm ok with that but nights usually cool off, usually.

That’s rough, never been so hot here at night that I can’t observe, hope it’s just a one off for you. Yes it’s been exceptionally hot and dry for many weeks where I live in UK, all my grass is yellow and crunchy underfoot, and it’s like a dust bowl. Still no sign of rain. 🙁 Good news is we’ve had lots of clear nights, but I’d prefer a bit of rain TBH.

Edited August 7, 2022 by RobertI

[skyhog]

And it looks like another heatwave coming in the next week here in the UK. Less severe temperatures but not great for the already parched earth as mentioned. 

[Simon128D]

Here in Ireland we had a mighty heat wave in July last year. For a few weeks it was in the mid to high 20C and then went up to 32c for three to four days. I remember on the hottest day of them all - near the end of July - it was clear and I set the C11 up at 22:30 for some imaging of Jupiter and Saturn, anyway when I went out at midnight I was literally only wearing my underpants and slippers and the outside thermometer was showing 27c, being almost naked, at the scope and feeling perfectly comfortable was a fabulous experience for me. 

Seeing was useless but I still got okay results on Jupiter and Saturn was passable enough to not get Shift+Del 

[Sunshine]

3 hours ago, Simon128D said:

Here in Ireland we had a mighty heat wave in July last year. For a few weeks it was in the mid to high 20C and then went up to 32c for three to four days. I remember on the hottest day of them all - near the end of July - it was clear and I set the C11 up at 22:30 for some imaging of Jupiter and Saturn, anyway when I went out at midnight I was literally only wearing my underpants and slippers and the outside thermometer was showing 27c, being almost naked, at the scope and feeling perfectly comfortable was a fabulous experience for me. 

Seeing was useless but I still got okay results on Jupiter and Saturn was passable enough to not get Shift+Del 

Have you thought about a YouTube channel? you could call it ‘The Naked Observer’ you never know! with all the astrophotography channels out there no one is representing visual 😂

Edited August 7, 2022 by Sunshine

[Simon128D]

On 07/08/2022 at 13:08, Sunshine said:

Have you thought about a YouTube channel? you could call it ‘The Naked Observer’ you never know! with all the astrophotography channels out there no one is representing visual 😂

The thought did cross my mind. It's Twitch that don't allow you to show nipples and I very much am a 'visual' observer. 😁

[LukeSkywatcher]

On 07/08/2022 at 09:39, Simon128D said:

Here in Ireland we had a mighty heat wave in July last year. For a few weeks it was in the mid to high 20C and then went up to 32c for three to four days. I remember on the hottest day of them all - near the end of July - it was clear and I set the C11 up at 22:30 for some imaging of Jupiter and Saturn, anyway when I went out at midnight I was literally only wearing my underpants and slippers and the outside thermometer was showing 27c, being almost naked, at the scope and feeling perfectly comfortable was a fabulous experience for me. 

Seeing was useless but I still got okay results on Jupiter and Saturn was passable enough to not get Shift+Del 

I'm in Ireland and I don't remember a heatwave last year. The last one I remember was in 2018. It was about 30C for a good few weeks maybe.

Then again, I can't remember what I had for breakfast today.

Edited August 8, 2022 by LukeSkywatcher

[OhNo]

You guys are Officially FUNNY! 33C here today with a 4o km/hr breeze, going down to 10C tonight. To live where I do (Bortle 1-2 and can watch my dog run away for 3 days) you have to be "Tough" or "Stupid"! Jury is still out on me!!!!

Edited August 9, 2022 by OhNo

[Simon128D]

8 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

I'm in Ireland and I don't remember a heatwave last year. The last one I remember was in 2018. It was about 30C for a good few weeks maybe.

Then again, I can't remember what I had for breakfast today.

I am in the North and most of July was excellent weather for the majority of the month in the twenties and then 4-5 days of 26-31.5c (Being the highest, which I took photos of my thermometer). I was out so many nights just observing or imaging the planets that I was starting to get bored with it lol.