Almost ready to quit...

[glafnazur]

Things will get better, just hang on in there, the nights will be getting darker and longer soon.

I don't get out anywhere near as much as I'd like due to work and family caring commitments and, like many I'm limited mainly to weekends, but the sessions I do get bring the magic back. There's nothing like looking at old favourites and discovering a few new gems. The first thing I do when I leave my house is to look up at the sky, I always have and always will, and giving up completely will only happen when I'm too unfit to continue.

A quick grab and go setup alongside the main kit is probably the answer. I've taken my 16x80 binos up to the bedroom (my wife sleeps downstairs now due to her health) and I have spent a good few hours observing from my bedroom window. I got a great view of the moon amongst some cirrocumulus last month. I set them up by the bed and if i am woken up in the middle of the night I have a quick look to see if its clear and spend a bit of time observing before going back to sleep. It isnt ideal but it is better than nothing.

In fact I'm thinking of bringing my ST80 up so I can at least get some observing in without the hassle of setting up and riskinn disturbing my wife in the middle of the night once I'm finished. 

Dave

[Mark2022]

On 27/07/2023 at 18:23, Mr Spock said:

So, the last time I was outside I had an hour and a half on the moon looking at Aristarchus and Gassendi. That was it more or less for June. I have had nothing in July. Nothing but cloud every single night.

Oh look, we have dark skies again, well, light grey for here. Sadly all I will see of it is more cloud. Is this just becoming a pointless hobby and we are all better off doing something less frustrating?

I feel you. However, my philosophy since investing a ton into this hobby is wrapped up in knowing how bad we have it here in the UK (Scotland even worse than you lucky people down south) but I always recognised it would be like this and simply take the view that I've spent money  I could afford to spend while knowing the kit will be relatively rarely used. However, I know I have it sitting waiting when the weather (and I) am in the mood. I think many watch too many American (and other) based videos where the skies are always clear (or seem to be) and we get frustrated because we feel we have to be viewing or imaging at least once or  twice a week and producing something. It's the "instagram" effect again, I think. "Everyone else is having a great time". Just reorientate your mind on it and say "It's there when the 'stars align' and that's all i need". There's always next week/month/year. I've also noticed one thing about  "Clearoutside". It's not got a good track record for prediction in my view. Neither, by the way, do "Climate Scientists"!

[Night Sky Surfer]

I'm feeling you.... I bought my first telescope on May 9. I bought eyepieces, a flip mirror for my Canon, and today I received an ASI533MC-P camera. Nice right? But since that day I have had nothing but South Florida humidity and cloud cover. I haven't had one night where I could find three bright stars to align to. I found that's a thing... and hopefully this (what I think is) hilarious video.may help you feel better.

My first post here right now... so you have to stick around awhile.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Night Sky Surfer
Clarity

[Nigella Bryant]

8 hours ago, Night Sky Surfer said:

I'm feeling you.... I bought my first telescope on May 9. I bought eyepieces, a flip mirror for my Canon, and today I received an ASI533MC-P camera. Nice right? But since that day I have had nothing but South Florida humidity and cloud cover. I haven't had one night where I could find three bright stars to align to. I found that's a thing... and hopefully this (what I think is) hilarious video.may help you feel better.

My first post here right now... so you have to stick around awhile.

OMG, I've bought into the conspiracy too, lol. Love that video. 

[SuburbanMak]

Sorry to hear of @Mr Spock's frustration but also quite relieved to read this thread.

I'd felt like I've lost my astro-mojo recently but reading this realise a lot of it is about lack of opportunity. My longer, planned sessions tend to take place on clear Friday/weekend evenings which on reflection have been in short supply of late!  Off on holiday down to Cornwall in a week or so (Bortle 3) and will pack the IS Binos, you never know... 

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, SuburbanMak said:

Sorry to hear of @Mr Spock's frustration but also quite relieved to read this thread.

I'd felt like I've lost my astro-mojo recently but reading this realise a lot of it is about lack of opportunity. My longer, planned sessions tend to take place on clear Friday/weekend evenings which on reflection have been in short supply of late!  Off on holiday down to Cornwall in a week or so (Bortle 3) and will pack the IS Binos, you never know... 

Good luck with the cloud gods during your vacation 🤞.

[Night Sky Surfer]

4 hours ago, Nigella Bryant said:

OMG, I've bought into the conspiracy too, lol. Love that video. 

I LOVE those stickers!!! 

[Xilman]

Folk in the UK may be having issues but here in La Palma tonight the sky is cloudy and hazy at the same time. The moon is visible but not much else, at least in part because of the moon.

Still hot and very sunny during the day. I now have somewhat sunburnt arms from repainting the dome on Sunday where a few rust patches had been treated two days earlier. 32C air temperature, very nearly no wind, absolutely no shade and vertical sunlight is definitely unhealthier than cool rain.  Nothing like a bit of radiation damage ...

[mcrowle]

On 30/07/2023 at 18:45, GTom said:

Dare I ask fellow cloudgazers from Cornwall how their Summer season went? Thinking on a trip to Land's End next week...

I’m in mid-Cornwall, and have just checked my sessions (mainly imaging) over this Summer. Late Spring / early Summer was best, as I suspect was the case over much of the UK, but still I managed 4 sessions in July. That followed 6 in June and no less than 10 in May! Hope that helps.

Good luck, and clear skies! Mike.

[Roy Challen]

Contrary to most, I'm not too disappointed with the weather with regards to astronomy this year. I've had 35 sessions so far (minimum of 30mins observing time).

Last year I had 120+ sessions and I  didn't even take advantage of every clear day or night. Too much of a good thing? 😜

 

[GTom]

8 hours ago, mcrowle said:

I’m in mid-Cornwall, and have just checked my sessions (mainly imaging) over this Summer. Late Spring / early Summer was best, as I suspect was the case over much of the UK, but still I managed 4 sessions in July. That followed 6 in June and no less than 10 in May! Hope that helps.

Good luck, and clear skies! Mike.

many thanks! May was fantastic up here as well!

[alan potts]

Many mile away things are not much better, May score 1 clear night when in the past I have had 28, then that 1 was on the full Moon. June was better but hazy and July has been about normal but very hot with a lot of air turbulence caused by 40c temperatures, which are about normal for this time of year, maybe one or two degrees hotter than usual but nothing to worry me.

Alan

[SwiMatt]

Where I am in Sweden, between June and July it never got really dark enough and now that skies are finally getting darker, the sky is covered all the time. The most frustrating is that we often have clear skies in the afternoon. Long story short, my new, just bought SkyMax 127 is still there waiting to be used 😶‍🌫️ I even have it set up in case the cat wakes me up at night to a cloudless sky! (Admittedly that is a desperation move, bordering on full jinx)

They tell you that astronomy can be hard to get into because of the gear and finding stuff, but it turns out the real difficulty is actually... finding the sky

[paulastro]

On 29/07/2023 at 21:14, bosun21 said:

Unfortunately I don't trust much that comes out of the BBC so it's the MET weather app for me. I've found it to be reasonably accurate over the past few years (for my area at least). I've found the map for cloud cover to be pretty accurate.

Totally agree with you.  The BBC App is toast as far as I'm concerned.  As you indicate, I find the Met Interactive Cloud/Rain map to be excellent since it was             re-vamped some months ago. 

Its useful for spotting  approachhing clear patches, and often correctly indicates clear conditions even when the map is different to the weather indicated by their own hourly weather symbols. If I just had one source of predicting clear skies, it would be this weather map.

[PhilB61]

I've stopped looking at the Clear Outside app as I find it overly pessimistic in its predictions, quite often windows of clear weather, admittedly sometimes only for an hour or two, appear which just don't show up on the app. But I agree it can be hard to maintain enthusiasm through long periods of bad weather and/or when you set up late evening in beautiful clear skies and the clouds roll in just as you are polar aligning, this has happened to me twice in the last 2 weeks. However, I'm relatively new to the hobby, this being my third year in total and second year of imaging so lots to learn and practice, which definitely helps during the periods of poor weather, I also have other active sports/hobbies with which to fill my time. I find having something to look forward to really helps, I'm lucky enough to be able to spend a number of months each winter in Spain so take all my gear with me and do a lot of my imaging there, but other shorter holidays or trips to dark skies also help when it feels like its been raining for weeks on end. Ultimately only you can decide if its time to give up, you will have to weigh up the balance of pleasure, contentment and satisfaction when the weather and everything else comes together against the periods of frustration when it doesn't. 

[mr_belowski]

I sacrificed some space in the car to fit in my smaller telescope for this years trip to the Llyn peninsular, hoping for dark skies and a couple of clear nights, In the end I think I spotted a fuzzy moon twice in 2 weeks. Could have used the space for something useful. Been a frustrating few weeks

[Xilman]

Cloud stopped play.

The cloud was so low that tiny water droplets could be seen drifting around in front on the torch used to walk to and from the observatory.

[nitram100]

Finished a 12 hr shift, setup the scope and left it for an hour to cool down in the garden with perfect blue skies. You would think it would be safe with the forecast?

 

No chance, this is England. It just started raining ahahah, had to pack the scope up quick.

I'm done with this hobby, in the UK at least.

 

 

[Xilman]

8 minutes ago, nitram100 said:

Finished a 12 hr shift, setup the scope and left it for an hour to cool down in the garden with perfect blue skies. You would think it would be safe with the forecast?

Two days running we had brilliant blue skies all daylight hours and then 100% cloud cover 30 minutes or so before sunset. No astronomy again tonight.

It can be just as frustrating in La Palma as in England. You are not alone, IOW.

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, nitram100 said:

Finished a 12 hr shift, setup the scope and left it for an hour to cool down in the garden with perfect blue skies. You would think it would be safe with the forecast?

 

No chance, this is England. It just started raining ahahah, had to pack the scope up quick.

I'm done with this hobby, in the UK at least.

 

 

Exactly the same scenario for me in Oxford. First light for a new scope delayed again 🙄.

[Nigella Bryant]

1 hour ago, Xilman said:

Two days running we had brilliant blue skies all daylight hours and then 100% cloud cover 30 minutes or so before sunset. No astronomy again tonight.

It can be just as frustrating in La Palma as in England. You are not alone, IOW.

Come over to the light side from the dark, lol.

[Highburymark]

Instead of DSOs, consider DSEs.

Do something else. 

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Come over to the light side from the dark, lol.

If they made H Alpha filters for binos and kept the price reasonable i would have a set.  Right now its just white light solar filters for me. 

[Elp]

It was actually clear for once for more than 4 hours (well not technically true but the small wispy cloud was fast moving and didn't affect the images much). But lo and behold, Perseid peak looks to be cloudy. Yet again.

[Xilman]

On 06/08/2023 at 23:15, Highburymark said:

Instead of DSOs, consider DSEs.

Do something else. 

Lots of other things to do, I find. Even in astronomy and during clouds, etc.

Analysing old images, keeping the web site updated, Zooniverse work, keeping up to date with the literature, ...