Ash

[vlebo]

I washed my car early yesterday morning and went back outside half an hour later to go and get the papers and found my car covered in a very fine dust. It was so fine you could blow it off quite easily which I did but it was covered again in about half an hour. The dust fall began to ease up a bit as the day progressed but just thinking if you leave your scope out to cool down you may get a years worth of dust on your scope in the space of an hour or two so keep all your important bits covered.

Just a heads up.

[John]

What colour was it ? - my wife has complained of a pale red powdery substance on her car yesterday - it was cleaned the day before. I wondered if that might be volcanic ash.

[vlebo]

It was a light grey colour. I'm asuming it was volcanic ash as I have not had this happen before and as I far as I could tell there were no fires or building work nearby .

[Towa]

This dust is extremely abrasive, I've been doing tests on an old binocular objective and it's leaving scratch marks in the glass surface.

[Astorix]

I too have been finding a light coating of grey"ish" dust on the car and my bike as well... And as for it being slightly abrasive i have found that out on my bike! not cool!!! I have had to keep the bike under cover, but there is nothing i can do about the car!

[Towa]

Last night I fitted some optical glass over the front of my refactor, after one hour of observing I had volcanic dust on it with this real swine sitting there.

While hardly any is visible on the car, it was still coming down here in North Notts during the evening. Slides done this morning are clear at the moment.