Every cloud..........

[lostinspace]

this weather is driving me nuts! every hour or so i`m up at the window looking for a break in the clouds, i haven`t even seen the moon for a week:eek:

i have been looking at stallarium to get a small fix, i found that if you stop time(yeti monsters equivalent of concentrating hard and stopping the rotation of the earth) you can then, at your leisure, zoom all the way in to saturns moons,for instance, withought it skipping by at silly speeds!

i guess its the next best thing.

john

[DarkerSky]

I know what you mean! Had solid cloud cover since early Monday morning now. Not so much as a peek of starlight

Stellarium is an excellent resource. I have it on my laptop when i'm observing - it is the best star map that I have

[Brunty12345]

same, im covered in a huge blanket, i avent seen the moon in about 2 or 3 weeks :/

[Shibby]

If you select a planet and press space, stellarium will track it. you can then try increasing timescale and watch the moons orbit

The clouds are driving me nuts too! every time a potential break is forecast it never happens!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Good to know that Stellarium can be paused,track objects etc. Should be a bit more fun now to use.

[matt c]

Haven't had a clear sky here for a while either, you should try downloading all the star catalogs and zooming in towards the galactic center pretty amazing

[Turner]

As a total beginner, i never realised before how few and far between these clear skys are!! i seem to gaze out every evening as well - in the hope of spotting a star:(

Andy

[NickH]

Practice processing on the Faulkes telescope dataset... keeps me busy when the clouds don't play ball

The CGEM/Edge scope I had on loan...close to 9 weeks of almost non stop clouds... I got less than two nights out with it...(thanks to Adam Hinds for so kindly extending the loan period so much)

[LukeSkywatcher]

I think i may start saving up and spend a few hundred euro on buying time on one of those remote telscopes located in South America or Australia.

To be honest i didnt know you could "buy time" on them and they are a hell of a lot cheaper then i would have ever imagined. My 1st try would be a waste of money as i'm sure i wouldnt know what the hell i was at.

[Tim]

The portable dome cinema/planetarium we had at the Salisbury star party used Stellarium to show the kids the planets etc.

I find it invaluable if I need alignment stars and dont know their name but can see them in the sky, but probably use it most to plan an imaging session, for with it I can see quite easily how long a stint I will get on my intended target, what time it will become viable, when it will reach the meridian etc. Much clearer and easier to understand than my usual planetarium software.

TJ

[Jove]

Stellarium's great.

Another (free) piece of software that's less practical but fun for a play with on cloudy evenings is Celestia - it's a bit like planetarium software that lets you fly about the universe and see what things look like, you can accelerate time (ridiculously) and watch things zoom around.