What are you going to do for the next 10 days?

[bomberbaz]

Well that is what I heard will be the length of time before we next experience clear skies again, 10 days!  

Yes we have experienced far longer in the past and the last (very hot) clear spell didn't really fall at the best lunar period but astronomy wise I made very good use of the latest clear patch.

What will I do you ask? I am going to tinker with my AZ Gti mount to tighten up RA slop and have a general tidy up of all my visual kit. SWMBO has reminded me a few times (as she does) that there are bits all over the place. TBF I have to agree.

Your turn!

[Knighty2112]

Sulk at the sky gods! 

[Mandy D]

Clear(ish) skies here right now, but getting bitten by midges, so I guess I'm going to be applying Anthisan to my legs for the next ten days! Was going after Jupiter tonight, but not so sure now. 🤣

[Moonshane]

Sort out my garage roof if it's dry enough at any point. That said, I'm retired now so should also have time to tidy my obs before the end of ten days!

Then loads more DIY in the house and hopefully the odd solar session in between.

[Mr Spock]

Make more of my double star finder charts for the 12". This one is one of four covering the head of Draco:

[Heids]

I am waiting for a daisy chain of events to happen that will finish my immediate setup. I am waiting on a scope tote to arrive from the US so I can take the temporary handle off my OTA. Once the scope tote is on then I can attach the Telrad properly (I didn’t want to stick it directly to the scope, and the temp handle made the fitting difficult) if the sticky doesn’t work then I have some command strips that should work. Once that is on I can do some proper day time alignment. 

Then I have to just convince my old and quite confused dog that it’s ok for me to be outside at night when it should be bedtime. This is the difficult one.

I am in no rush, the longer I wait the more chance I have to learn the intricacies of the dark art known as eyepieces.

All the stars come back eventually (apart from possibly Betelgeuse). 

[markse68]

Got a new scope to ready- quite convenient really  Needs mounting sorting and collimation etc. Hopefully there’ll be a few breaks in the daytime cloud for a bit of ha with the also new pst

Mark

[maw lod qan]

How do you expect a weather service predict something 10 days out when ours can't get landfall right for a hurricane that is 1 day from the coast? 🤣

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

To be honest I'm not much of a tinker. Kit stays away until I need to use it or something new arrives... During weather downtime there's plenty of other stuff to do, however my favourite toilet reading is an astro related book. I've just finished Death by Black Hole by Neil de Grasse Tyson and started On The Moon by Patrick Moore.

[bomberbaz]

9 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

To be honest I'm not much of a tinker. Kit stays away until I need to use it or something new arrives... During weather downtime there's plenty of other stuff to do, however my favourite toilet reading is an astro related book. I've just finished Death by Black Hole by Neil de Grasse Tyson and started On The Moon by Patrick Moore.

Sounds interesting, was it a good read?

[bomberbaz]

11 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

How do you expect a weather service predict something 10 days out when ours can't get landfall right for a hurricane that is 1 day from the coast? 🤣

haha yes I know that's very optimistic of me and somewhat arbitrary but that was what my BBC weather forecast said yesterday, today it is forecasting tomorrow night as a maybe clear 🤣

[DaveL59]

for me, hopefully starting a new job so late nights will be limited anyway. With luck tho some clear evenings to view the planets now they're starting to rise before silly-o'clock will happen 🙂 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

38 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Sounds interesting, was it a good read?

Yes. The book is basically loads of linked essays grouped into chapters. Being Tyson he wanders through theoretical astrophysics, to the potentialities of alien life, science education, religion and everything in between.

[bomberbaz]

17 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Yes. The book is basically loads of linked essays grouped into chapters. Being Tyson he wanders through theoretical astrophysics, to the potentialities of alien life, science education, religion and everything in between.

found it on amazon, think I will give it a go, cheers