The dire weather

[stuy]

Hi all is it me or has the last 6 months been the worse I can remember, constantly raining or cloud ! We’ve all invested seriously large sums of money and I do sometimes question my sanity! On what we do but one good clear night with really good seeing and we seem to forget the months of frustration. I can see people coming out of the hobby in the Uk due to the weather here it’s a sad fact .

 

i 

 

[John]

It's not just you @stuy 🙄

 

[Zermelo]

25 minutes ago, stuy said:

the last 6 months been the worse I can remember

I think I heard on the radio recently that the period from October to March was the wettest on record.

[Space Hopper]

Almost an untenable hobby for me.

I've only the one scope, but i often think it was a mistake buying it. I hardly seem to ever get to use it.

 

[Alan White]

Yes, its been a challenging time, but makes the rewards the richer for it.
I have managed a few sessions with varied scopes and more short ones with the binos.
All that with a damaged back issue going on.

If the hobby was too easy, it would be less rewarding!

[Elp]

It was much worse last year, constant rain and wind from Feb to around end of May. I primarily image so have to have long clear windows otherwise don't bother, so far managed around 7-8 sessions since January.

[YogSothoth]

I’ve only managed four sessions this year and observed the sun three times. Oddly, I seem to have clearest skies during a full moon. 

[Varavall]

4 hours ago, YogSothoth said:

Oddly, I seem to have clearest skies during a full moon. 

Oddly that is how it's been here in Spain over the past months. Maybe there is an explanation?

[PatrickO]

I was just thinking of starting a post saying the same thing. I'm almost getting to the stage of selling everything 

The unpredictable nature of the weather doesn't help. Couple of weeks ago forecast was saying 2-3 clear hours. No sooner than i got everything outside and aligned and it started raining.

If I were to work out the hourly use cost of my kit I'm sure it would be cheaper to go on a world cruise 😅

[YogSothoth]

4 hours ago, Varavall said:

Oddly that is how it's been here in Spain over the past months. Maybe there is an explanation?

Probably means we’ve upset some sort of astronomical deity 🤣

[Peter Drew]

1 hour ago, YogSothoth said:

Probably means we’ve upset some sort of astronomical deity 🤣

Yes, that will teach us to not scoff at Astrology.     🙃

Edited April 6 by Peter Drew
typo

[SteveNickolls]

In my 'umble opinion this is all because so many SeeStars were sold that the karmic balance of the Universe was broken and attempted repairs have since run into serious problems. It's like the repairs to the A1(M) only taking longer. 😁

Cheers,

Steve

Edited April 7 by SteveNickolls

[Mr_Cat]

For about 15 years I was a regular skydiver. I'd spend maybe £600/700 to get to a dropzone in the uk and sometimes spent the entire weekend looking at clouds. Or multiple days in Spain on tramunta wind holds, or Florida when hurricanes rolled in..

But so worth it for when it goes right and you get a window in the clouds.

 

Astronomy is surprisingly similar. Worth the wait!!

[Ratlet]

11 hours ago, YogSothoth said:

I’ve only managed four sessions this year and observed the sun three times. Oddly, I seem to have clearest skies during a full moon. 

I've long maintained that the clearest skies are +/- 3 days of. Full moon.

[Albir phil]

7 hours ago, Varavall said:

Oddly that is how it's been here in Spain over the past months. Maybe there is an explanation?

Yeah I'm in Albir and it's been a bad month, seems to clear around 3 am here,forecast says clear next Tues Weds and Thursday, I'll wait and see.🤞

[saac]

I got a clear sky at the moment but the wind is picking up (Storm Kathleen) so unfortunately the observatory roof is staying closed tonight  

Jim

[Paul M]

The only thing worse the dire weather is the dire ear I had a few weeks ago...!

Anyway,,,,,😁 I've stopped looking at the forecasts. I've been almost totally absorbed with my Allsky Camera project, Raspberry Pi's, and assorted mini PC's running either Windows or Ubuntu.

As an aside, I just took the SSD out of my underperforming, generic, Chinese mini PC (W10) that has been my imaging PC for a few years, and plugged it in my cutesy and slightly higher spec NUC that I've just relieved from other duties, and with a bit of poking and peeking in the BIOS it booted and runs! OK, it chewed away at itself for a while, but did what it needed to sort itself out. So if there is a clear, settled night, between now and the summer light night recess, I'm ready. And if the W10 NUC with APT et al does spring a cog, I'll fall back on my recently rebuilt EliteDesk Mini PC running Ubuntu and KStars/Ekos et al. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Rusted]

10 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

Yes, that will teach us to not scoff at Astrology.     🙃

You say astrology and we say meteorology.

Let's call the whole thing off!

[Gonariu]

On 4/6/2024 at 10:10 AM, YogSothoth said:

I’ve only managed four sessions this year and observed the sun three times. Oddly, I seem to have clearest skies during a full moon. 

I also observe the sun and, even if the climate of Sardinia is less rainy than that of the British Isles, due to the cloudy skies I am unable to have the consistency I would like. I have been thinking for some time about joining the Italian Amateur Astronomers' Union to participate in the "Sun Section" to which I can send my observations of our star. On the day that I cannot observe it, someone else will do it and things are carried out with the collaboration of everyone. In the UK you have the British Astronomical Association which I had heard about while reading James Murden's legendary book "Astronomy with binoculars" (in Italian translation).

[IB20]

The forecast yesterday on BBC was clear skies from 11am til early am the next day. It was cloudy all day and night. 🤷🏼

[Type1Turkey]

I must have at least 4 weather Apps on my phone and always listen very intently to TV weather forecasts (part-time postie, so it's necessary!). Seldom are the Apps in agreement and I still rely on satellite imagery and actually going outside - I've bagged a few sessions already this year that would never have taken place had I not had the ability to quickly set up. Of course for a big rig I can see that's not an option so much. 🌧️