THIS DAMN WEATHER SYSTEM!!??

[wesdon1]

Hi all, just a quick rant. This weather has been utterly merciless, it just will not go away? Rain, Rain bleedin' non stop rain for weeks!! I bought a new Optolong L-Enhance filter at the end of June and just always happens, the weather went awful and hasn't stopped since!? LOL. It really is true that when you buy new gear you provoke the angry weather Gods!! LOL.

PHEW!! Now I feel better! LOL

[M40]

You may be to blame for the current spell of bad weather, but just wait until all the seestars land that will take us through to the new year 😉

Edited July 19, 2023 by M40

[wesdon1]

2 minutes ago, M40 said:

You may be to blame for the current spell of bad weather, but just wait until all the seestars land that will take us through to the new year 😉

LOL i'm so sorry to you and all members! I'm guilty as charged! Haha!! 

LOL do you mean that new automated 50mm 'scope that does a similar job to the very expensive Vaspera and the like? Sorry if I sound dumb! LOL

[wesdon1]

6 minutes ago, M40 said:

You may be to blame for the current spell of bad weather, but just wait until all the seestars land that will take us through to the new year 😉

@M40 LOL I finally get what you meant now! Sorry! DOH!! My goodness my brain is really slowing down! haha!! 

Haha were all doomed when all those new Seestars S50's arrive!! haha!

[MonsterMagnet]

28 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

Hi all, just a quick rant. This weather has been utterly merciless, it just will not go away? Rain, Rain bleedin' non stop rain for weeks!! I bought a new Optolong L-Enhance filter at the end of June and just always happens, the weather went awful and hasn't stopped since!? LOL. It really is true that when you buy new gear you provoke the angry weather Gods!! LOL.

PHEW!! Now I feel better! LOL

I've upgraded to an ASI533MC about two weeks ago and I've not even had a chance to use it yet.

Utterly miserable.

MM

[wesdon1]

13 minutes ago, MonsterMagnet said:

I've upgraded to an ASI533MC about two weeks ago and I've not even had a chance to use it yet.

Utterly miserable.

MM

@MonsterMagnet Aww i'm gutted for you mate, those 533MC's look awesome for cooled astro. I'm planning on buying the new uncooled 585MC, i don't know if you've seen the reviews and it's stats, but everyone is raving about it. It's got amazing stats for an uncooled camera. That being said, If I had the money now I would buy the 533MC but for now I can only afford the 585MC.

Hopefully you'll get a chance to test out your new camera soon mate...

Wes.

[Elp]

If you want to save even more get a 485mc. Calibrates fine, I use it for deep sky.

Back on topic it's been pretty much like this since January. I usually do at least one image a month or every other month, nowhere near this year.

[Ratlet]

I've been consoling myself with the fact we basically roll from dusk to dawn right now, but we've got nautical darkness back now and I know the observing can be good then which is making it a bit unbearable.

[MonsterMagnet]

17 hours ago, wesdon1 said:

@MonsterMagnet Aww i'm gutted for you mate, those 533MC's look awesome for cooled astro. I'm planning on buying the new uncooled 585MC, i don't know if you've seen the reviews and it's stats, but everyone is raving about it. It's got amazing stats for an uncooled camera. That being said, If I had the money now I would buy the 533MC but for now I can only afford the 585MC.

Hopefully you'll get a chance to test out your new camera soon mate...

Wes.

I've just taken a look at the 585MC and it looks like a great camera - hopefully you'll get some clear skies to use it once you've purchased!

MM

[Guest]

Welcome to my world.   I only have Friday and Saturday nights to observe.  I might get 20 nights a year if i am lucky.  So far this year i have been out 5 times.  Thats bad even for Ohio. 

[nitram100]

I bought my first astro cam 2 weeks ago, altair 183c and it's been sat in the box ever since. I understand now why astrophotography is utterly frustrating in this country!

Not sure I can handle much more of this weather anymore!

 

I've hurried up my plans to return to Australia due to this weather, I can't roll the dice each summer hoping for clear skies it's not a good way to live. This weather is low key depressing the hell out of me!

[Ratlet]

31 minutes ago, MonsterMagnet said:

I've just taken a look at the 585MC and it looks like a great camera - hopefully you'll get some clear skies to use it once you've purchased!

MM

Going to be honest, I bought the Altair 533C and part of me thinks I should have gotten  a 585MC

[bosun21]

4 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Going to be honest, I bought the Altair 533C and part of me thinks I should have gotten  a 585MC

Why if you don't mind?

[Ratlet]

10 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Why if you don't mind?

I thought that I wanted to get into astrophotography, getting the perfect image and then spending the time to extract every last bit of data out of the image in post.  The reality is that I'm happy with something that is recognisable as the target.  I'm not really sure that I'm getting the full benefit of the larger sensor, cooling, etc to really warrant the extra money spent.  It's also smaller and a bit easier in terms of just dropping into an focuser for some quick and dirty imaging (say for the moon).  Certainly the images from the 585 sensor are spectacular and I'd be very happy with them.

But essentially I don't think that I needed the 533 sensor for what I'm doing with it (when I've managed to get out with it at all).

All that said, I can guarantee that if I bought the 585 I'd be sat here saying I wish I got the 533.

[wesdon1]

3 hours ago, Mike Q said:

Welcome to my world.   I only have Friday and Saturday nights to observe.  I might get 20 nights a year if i am lucky.  So far this year i have been out 5 times.  Thats bad even for Ohio. 

@Mike Q MY goodness Mike, you have my full sympathy! 

[wesdon1]

20 hours ago, Elp said:

If you want to save even more get a 485mc. Calibrates fine, I use it for deep sky.

Back on topic it's been pretty much like this since January. I usually do at least one image a month or every other month, nowhere near this year.

@Elp That rings a bell Elp, I think I saw a YT video where a guy was saying the 485MC was great value too? I'll take a look at it and compare with the 585Mc. Thanks Elp!

Wes.

[wesdon1]

20 hours ago, Ratlet said:

I've been consoling myself with the fact we basically roll from dusk to dawn right now, but we've got nautical darkness back now and I know the observing can be good then which is making it a bit unbearable.

@Ratlet My goodness I just noticed, you are up in Scotland, which is even further north, so you will be experiencing even worse problems with lack of true darkness during summer months! 

Aww yes it drives you nuts mate! It's so frustrating!

[wesdon1]

4 hours ago, nitram100 said:

I bought my first astro cam 2 weeks ago, altair 183c and it's been sat in the box ever since. I understand now why astrophotography is utterly frustrating in this country!

Not sure I can handle much more of this weather anymore!

 

I've hurried up my plans to return to Australia due to this weather, I can't roll the dice each summer hoping for clear skies it's not a good way to live. This weather is low key depressing the hell out of me!

@nitram100 Aww mate I share your frustration because I also bought a ZWO ASI 224MC camera about 5 weeks ago and I still haven't even had a chance to try that out on some planets yet either. So i have a L-Enhance filter and a planetary camera just sat there still waiting for first light. I guess we just have to bare with it mate, because when we do finally get a chance to go outside imaging, it will feel all the more special for waiting so long!

@nitram100 My goodness! I've just remembered! I did actually manage to try out my 224MC camera a few weeks back! I tested it on the ring nebula ( or a DSO very similar, I forget it's name? ) for about 30 minutes, just out of curiosity to see how it fared doing DSO imaging! I totally forgot, sorry! LOL

Edited July 20, 2023 by wesdon1

[Guest]

1 hour ago, wesdon1 said:

@Mike Q MY goodness Mike, you have my full sympathy! 

It is what it is.  Add smoke to this year and it has been the worst year EVER.  Plus Ohio is in the top 10 cloudiest States in the US 

[Alan White]

Look on the brightside,
we have all kept up and caught up on our sleep though.

[wesdon1]

11 minutes ago, Mike Q said:

It is what it is.  Add smoke to this year and it has been the worst year EVER.  Plus Ohio is in the top 10 cloudiest States in the US 

@Mike Q Mike it feels a bit strange me hearing you mention how cloudy Ohio is because as a brit, I'm used to it always being the UK that's a cloud ridden mess! LOL. I forget that it's not just the UK that suffers extensive cloud cover year 'round. I guess we just have to patient and remember that it makes those rare cloudless nights all the more enjoyable. Conversely, Liverpool, my city, had an amazing run of about 9 straight nights that were cloudless non stop all night long. It was incredible! 

[Elp]

1 hour ago, wesdon1 said:

@Elp That rings a bell Elp, I think I saw a YT video where a guy was saying the 485MC was great value too? I'll take a look at it and compare with the 585Mc. Thanks Elp!

Wes.

As far as I know, spec for spec it's the same other than the 585 non amp glow just like the 533, I did the same check before buying it.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Elp

[Louis D]

Come on down to Texas, then.  We haven't had clouds in weeks/months.  No rain, either.  100+ for weeks, 105+ for 10 days and counting.  I tried to go out and observe for a little while last week, but I was dripping sweat on everything within minutes even with a box fan blowing on me because it was still 97 degrees and 70+ degree dewpoint at 10pm.

* All temps in Fahrenheit.

[bosun21]

26 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Come on down to Texas, then.  We haven't had clouds in weeks/months.  No rain, either.  100+ for weeks, 105+ for 10 days and counting.  I tried to go out and observe for a little while last week, but I was dripping sweat on everything within minutes even with a box fan blowing on me because it was still 97 degrees and 70+ degree dewpoint at 10pm.

* All temps in Fahrenheit.

Somewhere in between would be ideal. The fact is that we have to make the best of the skies we have. I do travel occasionally to darker more favourable skies, but even then planning the trip to coincide with clear skies is not an easy task.

[WolfieGlos]

Here down south, personally I found the end of last year was worse, particularly November.

So far this year, ignoring single shots of the Moon, I’ve managed 22 different DSO images, discounting star clusters of 1-3 hours, this brings it down to 16. 9 targets are since I got my new scope on 27th April, only 2 of which have been clusters.

I don’t think this year has been so bad, it’s just the variability and unpredictable nature of it. Last year the forecasts were pretty reliable, but this year they haven’t been at all - across multiple apps. Even on the day they’ve been wrong! Like last night it was predicted to be clear skies on bbc weather; I saw the crescent Moon though 1 gap in the clouds about 10pm and that was it! Yet still at midnight it still said clear skies…🙄

I think it’s also down to circumstances too though. I work at home for the majority of the week so I can do the late nights in the summer months like when we had that warm spell a few weeks back. Fully appreciate that for most people, with work, travel, kids, etc, it’s just not always possible. If I was 9-5 in my office every day, I wouldn’t have half of the imaging time I’ve had so far this year.