When its cloudy what do you do with your telescope?

[Nick P]

Every evening this week the skies have been nice and clear until the sun goes down when the cloud cover moves in!

So in the time I have made available for observing I have collimated my newtonian to the point its probably out of collimation, have balanced my scope and mount a dozen times marking the tube at the optimum points, and marked out the north alignment on my viewing spot!

And the really annoying thing is the newt has been in my garage boxed for 7 years never been used (bought it just as I started working abroad so couldn't take it with me!) - so am waiting for a very delayed first light.....

What do you do when your observing is sabotaged by acts of god?

[Doc]

Polish it, give it hugs and kisses, tell it I love you, those sort of things

[TopHouse]

I take mine to bits and add new bits and fiddle with it, customise things, I find it gives a level of familiarity that no longer makes it scary to adjust things.

[brantuk]

I buy it some accessories to cheer it up lol

Dunno about kissing and hugging it though - that's wierd lol

[yeti monster]

I find something else to do, like DRINK!

[Beulah]

Polish it, give it hugs and kisses, tell it I love you, those sort of things

:D

I just go to bed and get a well-deserved night's sleep.

[beamish]

look at it longingly

[simon84]

I attend to my other passion.

[abumuhannadh]

browse the SGL and see what others are observing

[TopHouse]

I attend to my other passion.

You've got fishing rods too!!!!

[lunator]

I also try and get some planning done

Not always sucessful at this.

Cheers

Ian

[LukeSkywatcher]

I find something else to do, like DRINK!

Which in turn leads to the hugging and the kissing of the scope and telling it that "i love you".

Been there done that.

[crazyjedi]

Hmm i tend to do all of the above. i drink, i balance and rebalance it, sometimes i rest my hand on my scope whilst staring longingly out at the cloud strewn sky. I've also been known to stand in the garden scopeless and annoyed looking up at the impenetrable water vapour above and silently curse the troublesome sky. Oh and sometimes i fall asleep. Well one has to from time to time

[Astro_Baby]

Colliamation is the big one I guess but I also clean them when needed.

I also write my guides to keep my hand in.

[Nick P]

Also tried testing the goto accuracy of the mount by matching where the telescope was pointing to where the stars are supposed to be using 'Starry Night' and moving the lap top around to see if it lines up.

Judging by the looks I was getting from my wife and children whilst doing this in the living room, they clearly think I have taken leave of my senses so maybe hugging and kissing it may get me sectioned!

Still have no idea how accurate the goto is (just use the drive for tracking), but was good fun anyway.

Planning would be a good idea, getting familiar with star maps of the relevant area and nearby targets (Bootes is the main target I hope to focus on, preceded by Saturn if it hasn't got too low) and plotting stars for hopping routes.

And once that's all done, and the clouds still haven't cleared, there's a nice bottle of Glenlivet on the shelf and ice in the freezer!

[r3i]

I tend to launch the planetarium software and see what's up there behind the clouds and think "Look what you could've seen".

I also like to clean and tweak a bit - unfortunately, as the saying goes "it it aint broke, fix it until it is"., occasionally applies.

[davy999]

I tend to launch the planetarium software and see what's up there behind the clouds and think "Look what you could've seen".

Were you Jim Bowen in a previous life??

I just read even more threads on SGL, and buy stuff to cheer my scope up, which leads to more clouds ergo more purchases!

[Deneb]

Give it the Night Off...

Nadeem.

[twotter]

I look at Stellarium, look out of the kitchen window, get grumpy, then go and get slaughtered playing Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer

[johnkirkpatrick]

I curse like mad!! Went out last night and then the clouds just covered the sky, 2 months of cloud!!!! am not happy as I really want to see Jupiter for first time. Might be lucky tonight??? Anyway the last 2 months I've been moaning to my wife about the cloud lol. Think if I mention one more time she will kill me lol. think am the only one that welcomes the winter. anyway's I try perfect collimation prob making it worse in the process..

[paulhereford]

As my partner will be in the land of nod by the time darkness falls, if clouds prevent me observing, I tend to have a browse of this wonderful forum, read and keep walking in and out of the house in the vain hope that the sky will clear.

[great_bear]

I test out eyepieces on objects in the distance down the road.

[RikM]

once that's all done, and the clouds still haven't cleared, there's a nice bottle of Glenlivet on the shelf and ice in the freezer!

What on Earth are you doing polluting Glenlivet with ice?

When it's not being used, my scope lives in a box on top of the wardrobe and I dream about getting a bigger better one next year.

Rik

[Talitha]

TBH, i don't do anything with the scopes when it's cloudy unless something needs to be fixed, which is extremely rare.

[r3i]

Were you Jim Bowen in a previous life??

I just read even more threads on SGL, and buy stuff to cheer my scope up, which leads to more clouds ergo more purchases!

You can't beat a bit of Bully!