Astronomy, the cruelest of hobbies.

[Sunshine]

Temperatures here have been in the mid thirties all week not including the humidex value pushing it near 40. Just now I tried to get some solar observing in only to be chased back in the house feeling like I had walked into an oven. I'll just wait for night as the sky is blue and get some night observing under clear skies...NOT SO!! squadrons of kamikaze mosquitos chase me back into the house after only a half hour of slapping myself silly. maybe I'll start building those boats inside bottles, or telescopes inside bottles!.

[RobertI]

Sorry to hear about that. 😕 Sounds like you have all sort of challenges there. Fortunately mosquitos and biting insects are not something we ever really get over here in the east of England, the driest part of the UK. Seem to get plenty of cloud though! 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Sunshine said:

Temperatures here have been in the mid thirties all week not including the humidex value pushing it near 40. Just now I tried to get some solar observing in only to be chased back in the house feeling like I had walked into an oven. I'll just wait for night as the sky is blue and get some night observing under clear skies...NOT SO!! squadrons of kamikaze mosquitos chase me back into the house after only a half hour of slapping myself silly. maybe I'll start building those boats inside bottles, or telescopes inside bottles!.

Believe me, I feel your pain.  Its no better down here, 90 degrees isn't out of the norm for us this time of year, it is still miserable.  At least we don't have any smoke at this time.  

[Elp]

Be careful not to stand on grass during the summer lest you be bitten every inch by ants.

[jjohnson3803]

It's not the same as eyeball to eyepiece, but I am seriously considering pre-ordering a ZWO Seestar robotic scope.  In theory, I could put it on my back deck and observe from inside on my tablet while the mosquitos swarm.  I have to say though that I've found running a box fan on low speed aimed at me / my scope to be effective in keeping skeeters away.