My cloud data for January

[Hypernova]

I have been keeping tabs on the cloud cover this month as a little personal project to keep myself occupied. It is just a simple excel spreadsheet to enter if it was clear or not and then I just add up the days manually in the bottom cells.

There are three columns; one fore if it was cloudy, another for if it is clear and I observed and a final one for if it was clear but didn't have the chance to go out that night. I count a clear night as one where I can do some appreciable observations and not a quick peek through gaps in the clouds, a large break lasting 20 minutes ore more would count I suppose.

So far for January I have counted all the clear and cloudy nights.

Out of 31 nights there were:

• 21 cloudy night,
  
• 2 clear nights where I DIDN'T observe,
  
• and 8 clear nights where I did Observe.
  

The percentage of clear nights where I observed is given as 25.81%, or just over a quarter. Not too bad I suppose and I would really like to see how last months compares with Feb and the coming months.

[shaunster]

so 10 clear nights for january, thats not bad in the UK..

We've probably had that many here, but poor seeing ruins most of them

[Hypernova]

We've probably had that many here, but poor seeing ruins most of them

I agree that the seeing has been overly poor on the clear nights that we have had. I so far haven't managed to get a stable airy disk pattern at all and double star splitting is off the cards for anything remotely close. I don't want to even attempt planetary viewing with the seeing the way it is ATM.

[Photosbykev]

It's clear here for the first time in a while but there is a 20mph breeze blowing lol Pointless setting up for imaging.

[pete_l]

If you go to the Met Office website at Met Office: UK: latest weather and navigate your way through to your local weather station's tabular reports you can see things like whether it's been clear over the past 6 hours.

If you're clever you can write a little script that pulls that data out and keeps it for you. Then you can see how many hours of clear (night) sky there has been in any given time.

For my local office, of the 744 hours in the month, 55 were classed as clear. That's at any time of the night - only 35 were before midnight.

Just in case anyone cares, the numbers since I started collecting this in March last year are:

March 58 hours

April 136

May 100

June 99

July 50

August 74

September 102

October 94

November 53

December 58

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Better percentage yet: 80% of clear nights used! Good going indeed.

[DarkerSky]

Those are interesting stats, Tom. I also got out with a scope on 8 nights during January. No idea though on the number of clear parts to a night on which I didn't observe.

[LukeSkywatcher]

After the first week in Jan i gave up trying to count clear nights. I dont think there were many after about Jan 8th.

[mark7331]

After the first week in Jan i gave up trying to count clear nights. I dont think there were many after about Jan 8th.

I'm still counting mine. A grand total of 2.

[Hedgerow]

Most interesting stats. Without such careful record keeping it is easy to assume there have been very few clear nights. In fact I wondered if January had been much cloudier than usual. Actally it has not been quite as bad as I thought!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Even if the sky is clear, am i wrong to count snow and high winds as "cloudy" unusable nights?

I bet most people will say yes i am wrong.

I am stuck inside when there is snow on the ground so i think that counts as unusable. High winds are not much trouble for my Dob. Its low to the ground profile means it doesnt really suffer.

[Astro_Baby]

Wow !!!! you have had fantastoc weather. I also am keeping a weather record.

January, ever single night has been cloudy, or cloudy and rain, or cloud and fog or cloud and high winds apart from one night where I did get to observe.

The cloud status is taken at 2 times in the evening. Once when I get home from work and onve when I go to bed. It might have been clear at say 2am when I am asleep but I would cont that as cloudy if it was cloudy at 10pm when I go to bed as I cant observe in the early hours. I have work to do.

I have decidede this year that if I dont get to observe better than 12 nights then thats it and I will be packing up the hobby. Someone yesterday at Astrofest told me "the weather has been a bit bad lately" and I could ny retort "when you say lately you presumably mean every £&@£€#% night for past 3 years" thats really how it seems to me and so I have decided to give it one more year. If its no better then I shall be leavng the hobby next January for sure. Until then I shall carry on as normal but if I dont do better than12 nights worth then its stupid to carry on, I will take up something I have some chance of actually doing. For the past three years I would have made more progress in ice skating while living in the Gobi desert than Its seems I ever can with astro in the UK.

[Astro_Baby]

Oh and as fo met office data there were a few nights when the said it was clear for my area when it patently wasn't and the only night that was actually clear the met office had down as cloudy all night. The met offive should take up up with the chocolate teapot and fireguard corporation as they are about as much use as eavh other.

[DarkerSky]

I have decidede this year that if I dont get to observe better than 12 nights then thats it and I will be packing up the hobby.

It's a shame that you would give up astronomy due to cloud frustrations. Unfortunately, in the UK, microclimates play a very significant role in where and when cloud appears - even when the general forecast is for clear sky.

I got 80 observing nights last year, so I guess I must be in a fairly ok area. I know places along the south coast get way more clear sky than me though

[acey]

Very interesting stats. Would also be interesting to know how they correlate with moonlight: experience tends to be that the clearest nights are when the moon prevents deep-sky observing. Either that or you've got to get up for work next day.

William Herschel reckoned that about one night in three offered a window for some kind of observing, and your stats match his. But when he took Moon and sky transparency into account, he could only manage about 100 hours of optimum deep-sky observing per year: an average of about 2 hours per week. But he still managed to discover more than 2000 DSOs, most of them within only a few years.

[Slangers]

I think I have similar observation frequency- worth noting that of my 6 nights observing out of maybe 9 possible nights clear, the full/near full moon ruined 2.

[Astro_Baby]

Oh to be able to see a full moon - sighs.

As to giving up I see no value in owning a telescope that I cant ever use or cant use. I live in a small flat and everyting has to earn its place by being used or being useful. A long metal tube that occupies space but can be used very often just has no place.

If I ever got the interest back its simple - I can come to a star party and look through your kit

More likley I would keep the TAL 100 as room decor so I would have at least one scope for use.

[pvaz]

Been pretty bad here too. I think I had about 8 decent nights but appointments and work made me loose 4 of those. I was too tired on another so just had a 15min session with binos. The other 3 I had about sessions of around 2 hours, good enough to get by.

Really need a good night to let the frustration go!