Clear nights compared to previous years.

[Merak]

Has anyone kept a log of how many clear nights there have been versus previous years?

Location might play a part but this year it seems that it hasn't been that great for clear nights.

Cheers, Mark

[SupernovaF1]

I live near Oxford and I have only used my astrophotography rig twice in the past four months. From memory, I missed less than five nights because moon was full or I was busy. Looking through my folders, in 2022  I managed to get at least 15 sessions in the same period (unsure of sky quality).

One of the differences though, and probably a very important factor, is that I need a full clear night from setup to sunrise, eg: i dont bother setting up if its good at 10pm but rain/heavy clouds are forecasted at 4am. This might have to change...

But in my experience, 2023s last trimester has been a write off.

[FenSkies]

I'm in Cambridgeshire and get the same impression. And even nights forecast as clear often have a cover of haze that takes the contrast out of the sky. There definitely seem to be fewer crystal clear, frosty winter nights during this last two or three years.

[900SL]

Near Helsinki and much worse than last year. Two clear nights in three months. Its quite depressing, especially given that astro season is shortened this far north

[Mr Spock]

It's a simple relation to global warming. 2023 is a record year for warmth of the North Atlantic Current. As a result more moisture gets into the air, that in turn creates more cloud, that cloud is then blown across the UK and Scandinavia.

This autumn / winter has been the worst for cloud I can remember.

[SteveNickolls]

I would agree that his autumn has been poor both for observing and DSO imaging, my last DSO imaging was over six weeks ago. I keep details of observing and imaging sessions and this year only by starting to image the Sun and Moon (when clouds have allowed) have the overall figures kept generally healthy but actual DSO work has virtually stopped. Here's the imaging record since 2016-

Year	Month
	J	J	A	S	O	N	D	J	F	M	A	M	Total	Av
16-17	2	1	6	3	2	1	3	1	0	4	5	2	30	2.5
17-18	1	1	7	6	2	2	4	4	1	1	2	3	34	2.8
18-19	1	3	8	4	5	4	5	6	3	1	1	3	44	3.7
19-20	0	0	5	8	2	0	1	4	4	3	4	1	32	2.7
20-21	0	1	2	9	2	3	5	3	5	0	3	0	33	2.8
21-22	1	5	2	5	0	2	2	10	2	4	4	5	42	3.5
22-23	2	0	11	2	4	5	6	7	5	2	3	2	49	4.1
23-24	6	5	9	9	6	11	0

Cheers,
Steve

Edited December 29, 2023 by SteveNickolls

[WolfieGlos]

All year I’ve been generally quite happy with my imaging time, appreciating the weather for the UK, but these last few months have been terrible and really trying.

Despite this, the last third of this year has incredibly been my most productive time all year….with a caveat as noted below.

I’ve totalled up my time as below, split into thirds only because I purchased a new scope at the end of April so I decided to see what usage I’ve had from the new one. These are the usable subs that went into images, so the actual total would be a little higher with scrapage. This also doesn’t include Milky Way shots (separate tracker running alongside my main rig), or some Lunar and Planetary that I dabbled in - another 4 hours of imaging and a few hours working out how to do it and finding the planet 🤣

• 1st January - 25th April = 78:30 hours
• 27th April - 31st August = 84:49 hours
• 1st September - 29th December = 90:30 hours*

* It’s worth noting that since the start of November, I’ve captured 16 hours (13 of which fall in November…), so it’s easy to see that the majority of this falls in September/October - when I did my 54hour mosaic. I purchased an ASIair in the Black Friday sales in November… it still sits unused.

I also know I’ve missed sessions due to social occasions or incorrect forecasts throughout the year, but I’ve always set up even if it’s just for a few hours. And incredibly it’s predicted to be clear tonight for 3 or 6 hours depending who you believe, so maybe a last hurrah for 2023 yet to come … with the near full Moon of course 🙄

[Elp]

It's been more awful for sure. I don't setup unless there's no cloud nearby forecast for at least four hours, experience has shown any bitty cloud nearby will lead to clouded over sessions and I don't want my equipment to be rained upon.

I find winter is unusually the best time of year, especially if it's freezing. But this year Feb until around June it was constant rain/high wind/cloud completely unsettled, summer never came (one or two heatwave days don't count, previous summers ive had at least one or two weeks majority of days unbroken sessions during the height of summer), then again unsettled, odd sessions in Aug, then Sep then Dec. Now back to constant clouding over and rain as well as wind due to the recent stormy front.

[AstroGS]

I’m afraid that the weather this year and especially 2nd half of the year, has made it almost impossible for me to image. 
 

I managed to gather some good light while I was in Greece for summer holidays but, after that, I had probably 10 hrs max till today. 
 

The investment in mono, new filters and new scope, cannot be justified with the almost 15-20 sessions I had this year. I was even planning to build my own backyard Obsy but, I couldn’t justify it at all. 
 

This is why I have made the decision to set my rig to a remote hosting observatory in Spain and try to get the most out of my rig. 
 

Im keeping a 2nd wide field, OSC setup here for the odd nights that weather will do us a favour. 

[Bugdozer]

1 hour ago, 900SL said:

Near Helsinki and much worse than last year. Two clear nights in three months. Its quite depressing, especially given that astro season is shortened this far north

I don't follow this - yes you have a smaller amount of darkness in the summer, but this is exactly balanced by a much greater amount of darkness in the winter, isn't it? So the total hours of darkness per year are identical for everywhere on earth, just distributed differently. 

[Voxish]

I had an excellent season last year, this year has been very poor. All in all the weather to me appears more cloudy year on year and definitely moving in the wrong direction 

[900SL]

58 minutes ago, Bugdozer said:

I don't follow this - yes you have a smaller amount of darkness in the summer, but this is exactly balanced by a much greater amount of darkness in the winter, isn't it? So the total hours of darkness per year are identical for everywhere on earth, just distributed differently. 

We have zero astronomical darkness in summer, roughly from May to August. Then it can be cloudy and humid for months, which is the current situation, so long nights dont really matter.

There may be a couple of clear nights coming in the new year however, where the temp may drop to -20C!

[Merak]

Thanks for the comments.     Another thing is those of us working shifts - it seems that some of the decent nights have coincided with when I've had to work - most frustrating!

Surely 2024 can't be any worse?

[900SL]

I've just bought a 533mm pro from FLO, on the basis that there are so few clear nights here. So if the moon us up at the same time, I can shoot narrowband

[Naughty Neal]

I have often get home from my nightshift at a bit after 03.30 hrs to see nice fairly decent viewing but sleep over comes the need to set up.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Naughty Neal

[Elp]

I'm starting to wonder whether building a micro obsy with a Seestar within might be the way to go going forward. You could even keep it in a wheely bin. Next to no setup time and doesn't take much space at all.

[inFINNity Deck]

I live in the Netherlands near the west coast. This year indeed has been less generous with clear nights:

A clear night is when I can leave the observatory open for the whole night without the risk of rain or loosing a substantial amount of subs due to clouds (I live at a Bortle 5-6 location and the shutters are not automated). Being away from home I missed 4 clear nights at the beginning of this year, so there were 27 clear nights in total (summer months not included, I do not image from about 20 May until 20 July). The last deep-sky imaging night was on 14 September, after that I only had a go at asteroid 1998 HH49 for a few minutes on 17 October and a few evenings with the planets on 22 October and 25 November. Even my daily solar observations have almost ground to a halt, currently only recording sunspots every three days on average (this month only 9 observations).

Nicolàs

[ONIKKINEN]

4 hours ago, 900SL said:

Near Helsinki and much worse than last year. Two clear nights in three months. Its quite depressing, especially given that astro season is shortened this far north

This season has been terrible, and doesnt look any better for the near future if the forecast is to be taken seriously.

I managed 9 nights since August 13th, but 6 of these in 8-12m/s winds so really only 3 decent nights (and many of the nights quite short). Should probably get some wind resistant gear like a Samyang 135 to make use of every night that the skies give...

[ONIKKINEN]

3 hours ago, Bugdozer said:

I don't follow this - yes you have a smaller amount of darkness in the summer, but this is exactly balanced by a much greater amount of darkness in the winter, isn't it? So the total hours of darkness per year are identical for everywhere on earth, just distributed differently. 

Not really the case, twilight is much longer at northern latitudes because of the Suns low altitude so the actual amount of darkness is not that big of a positive. Right now astro darkness is around 13h and a month from now an hour less. Then it rapidly decreases as spring progresses further with only 4-5h at the beginning of April and none at all from April 25th onwards (or thereabouts).

Overall far north latitudes are a major downside in terms of imaging opportunities.

[Bugdozer]

3 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Not really the case, twilight is much longer at northern latitudes because of the Suns low altitude so the actual amount of darkness is not that big of a positive. Right now astro darkness is around 13h and a month from now an hour less. Then it rapidly decreases as spring progresses further with only 4-5h at the beginning of April and none at all from April 25th onwards (or thereabouts).

Overall far north latitudes are a major downside in terms of imaging opportunities.

Except what you describe is balanced out by astronomical darkness happening much earlier in the evening and lasting longer in the morning during the winter half of the year. For example, in November, there are more hours of astronomical darkness in Helsinki than there are in Hastings. You are neglecting to factor in that a night which is 17 hours long gives you more opportunities to observe than a night which is 14 hours long. 

What the axial tilt giveth in the summer, it taketh away in the winter. 

[ONIKKINEN]

6 minutes ago, Bugdozer said:

Except what you describe is balanced out by astronomical darkness happening much earlier in the evening and lasting longer in the morning during the winter half of the year. For example, in November, there are more hours of astronomical darkness in Helsinki than there are in Hastings. You are neglecting to factor in that a night which is 17 hours long gives you more opportunities to observe than a night which is 14 hours long. 

What the axial tilt giveth in the summer, it taketh away in the winter. 

17h is with twilight included so not a useful estimate on usable night sky time, right now we have 13h of astro darkness according to Stellarium and Hastings has 12, so not that different.

[900SL]

9 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

17h is with twilight included so not a useful estimate on usable night sky time, right now we have 13h of astro darkness according to Stellarium and Hastings has 12, so not that different.

Plus, as I previously noted to Bugdozer, it's moot, given the near permanent cloud cover. 

[inFINNity Deck]

I image LRGB when the sun is below -15.5 degrees, and below -13.5 degrees when imaging narrow band. If I would do imaging at Espoo I would do so within the green lines in below graphs, the first for LRGB, the second for NB:

So about 13.5 hours is indeed the max.

These graphs are generated with my own script and can be personalised for your location and time-zone. It can be used stand-alone or embedded in a website. For a full description see: https://www.dehilster.info/astronomy/astronomical_twilight.php

Nicolàs

 

[Pete Presland]

Feels like its been the poorest year so far, in terms of cloud cover and opportunities for me.

[Alan White]

It must be that time of year and this topic comes up.

I have missed as many observing opportunities due to other commitments and life in general this year as much as any other.

I have had a number of great observing sessions and will not grumble.