Tim Ray:
As I age I found I was setting up only on nights with forecasts predicting clear skies for the entire night. I often sleep while the scopes are eating photons. I did not want a surprise of a weather mishap. I built an observatory. This was a game changer. If weather is predicted early with clearing after midnight. I will go to bed early and set an alarm. From decision to image to an autofocus run in 10min opens up the multi-hour clear window for me to image. I do this more than I get a chance to image the entire evening. Tonight is one of those nights. I have clouds forecasted after midnight. I have a scope working now... Last winter I went 67 days with solid night clouds cover. This year was 43 consecutive days with clouds. In March 2024 I have had 5 clear nights and 4 partial nights of clear skies.
Clear Skies,
TIm
Tim this home observatory sounds Amazing maybe one day I will build one. I might start keeping a tally on cloudy nights good idea!
I just bought an AM5 for ease and a Askar107 still haven’t used them due to weather, I’m itching to get out there 😅
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Chris Sulyma - SeaWolf Astrophotography:
Montreal has been horrific, as well. A ton of absolutely beautiful, clear days... that cloud over by sunset. Maybe had 8-10 solid nights of clear skies this year.
Ahhh so I’m not alone, I was thinking here in the UK West Midlands, taking up Astrophotography was a stupid idea but it seems everyone has been having terrible weather.
I suppose we will just have to wait it out.
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Chris Addison:
Chris Sulyma - SeaWolf Astrophotography:
Montreal has been horrific, as well. A ton of absolutely beautiful, clear days... that cloud over by sunset. Maybe had 8-10 solid nights of clear skies this year.
Ahhh so I’m not alone, I was thinking here in the UK West Midlands, taking up Astrophotography was a stupid idea but it seems everyone has been having terrible weather.
I suppose we will just have to wait it out.
I thought the finnicky weather of Victoria BC and the Pacific coast was bad... Ontario/Quebec is so much WORSE.
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I usually go for 20/40h for sho/lrgb. Last (and only) time I was able to image this year was on the 11th of January...  |
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Jon Rista:
I image on clear and partially clear nights, if I can. The prevalence of "fully clear" nights is pretty low. It ebbs and flows, but, when you hear about places having "200 sunny days a year" that number is rarely referring todays that are totally clear.
Actually, where I am, it is 300+ sunny days a year. It does rain in the winter some days, but rarely longer than 1-2 days, then sun comes back for weeks, and so on.
Starting in April it is possible there won't be a cloudy day for MONTHS. Once, there wasn't a cloudy day for 6 months.
And I know, if one were to look up weather forecast it will show as "cloudy" or even "raining", but the weather forecast is not so precise, it just shows the weather in the nearest city in general, but not exactly where I am (which is the countryside). And we are infamous for microlimates - i.e. it could be raining and cloudy just 2km from me, but not a single cloud on my location - and this happens all the time, even today. It was fully sunny here, but in the mountains not even a few km from me there were clouds and there is even snow there.
Which is why the weather forecast was showing it was going to rain yesterday and today. There wasn't a single cloud anywhere to be seen over me, neither yesterday nor today.
EDIT: Just to add to this: Take a look at my video of building the Telescope Mini-Shelter. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrq9evpPd4k)
It was filmed in the beginning of February, so in the middle of the winter. Apart for a few clouds in the distance, which always disappear as the night is nearing (you can see it in the video in one shot, the later it gets the clouds completely disappear), we worked on the Observatory for ca. 2 weeks in total, and there wasn't a cloudy night at all for 3 whole weeks. It then rained for 2 days and since then, until now, every night was clear again. Tomorrow it is supposed to "rain" ...
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Skender Kajoshaj:
Jon Rista:
I image on clear and partially clear nights, if I can. The prevalence of "fully clear" nights is pretty low. It ebbs and flows, but, when you hear about places having "200 sunny days a year" that number is rarely referring todays that are totally clear.
Actually, where I am, it is 300+ sunny days a year. It does rain in the winter some days, but rarely longer than 1-2 days, then sun comes back for weeks, and so on.
Starting in April it is possible there won't be a cloudy day for MONTHS. Once, there wasn't a cloudy day for 6 months.
And I know, if one were to look up weather forecast it will show as "cloudy" or even "raining", but the weather forecast is not so precise, it just shows the weather in the nearest city in general, but not exactly where I am (which is the countryside). And we are infamous for microlimates - i.e. it could be raining and cloudy just 2km from me, but not a single cloud on my location - and this happens all the time, even today. It was fully sunny here, but in the mountains not even a few km from me there were clouds and there is even snow there.
Which is why the weather forecast was showing it was going to rain yesterday and today. There wasn't a single cloud anywhere to be seen over me, neither yesterday nor today.
EDIT: Just to add to this: Take a look at my video of building the Telescope Mini-Shelter. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrq9evpPd4k)
It was filmed in the beginning of February, so in the middle of the winter. Apart for a few clouds in the distance, which always disappear as the night is nearing (you can see it in the video in one shot, the later it gets the clouds completely disappear), we worked on the Observatory for ca. 2 weeks in total, and there wasn't a cloudy night at all for 3 whole weeks. It then rained for 2 days and since then, until now, every night was clear again. Tomorrow it is supposed to "rain" ...
If you truly live in such a place, you are exceptionally lucky! And I'm a bit jealous. ;) I'd love to have that kind of environment, sounds wonderful. It would be so nice to be able to just set up a year's worth of imaging, and have it run every night and acquire it all for a full year. With cameras as sensitive as they are now, and people discovering things like the OIII arcs near Andromeda and the like...I wonder what you could discover if you had so much clear sky time. Where do you live, BTW?
Amazing environment. I don't think its all that common, though. A lot of places, it is often sunny during the day, but when night falls, at the very least a haze moves in. The little bit of cloud cover you had in some of the portions of your video...I often have that here at night. They move through a frame, and can have an impact. Sometimes its minimal and you can work with it, sometimes its enough that it destroys the sub. I try to image on nights like that, though, just because it can mean some additional time on target that I otherwise wouldn't have.
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Jon Rista:
Skender Kajoshaj:
Jon Rista:
I image on clear and partially clear nights, if I can. The prevalence of "fully clear" nights is pretty low. It ebbs and flows, but, when you hear about places having "200 sunny days a year" that number is rarely referring todays that are totally clear.
Actually, where I am, it is 300+ sunny days a year. It does rain in the winter some days, but rarely longer than 1-2 days, then sun comes back for weeks, and so on.
Starting in April it is possible there won't be a cloudy day for MONTHS. Once, there wasn't a cloudy day for 6 months.
And I know, if one were to look up weather forecast it will show as "cloudy" or even "raining", but the weather forecast is not so precise, it just shows the weather in the nearest city in general, but not exactly where I am (which is the countryside). And we are infamous for microlimates - i.e. it could be raining and cloudy just 2km from me, but not a single cloud on my location - and this happens all the time, even today. It was fully sunny here, but in the mountains not even a few km from me there were clouds and there is even snow there.
Which is why the weather forecast was showing it was going to rain yesterday and today. There wasn't a single cloud anywhere to be seen over me, neither yesterday nor today.
EDIT: Just to add to this: Take a look at my video of building the Telescope Mini-Shelter. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrq9evpPd4k)
It was filmed in the beginning of February, so in the middle of the winter. Apart for a few clouds in the distance, which always disappear as the night is nearing (you can see it in the video in one shot, the later it gets the clouds completely disappear), we worked on the Observatory for ca. 2 weeks in total, and there wasn't a cloudy night at all for 3 whole weeks. It then rained for 2 days and since then, until now, every night was clear again. Tomorrow it is supposed to "rain" ...
Where do you live, BTW?
Albania.
But, as I said, we have micro-climates here. It was like that since I remember. For example it could be snowing just a few km away, but be sunny here. Extreme micro-climates.
BTW, the forcast was right for today  It rained the whole day, with massive amounts of rain. But 3 hours ago it started to clear up, and now it is clear again
EDIT: I think it might have something to do with a river here, which goes through a massive canyon. Every night, exactly after sunset a specific wind starts to blow (which is caused by that river), which then I guess somehow affects the clouds, no idea.
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Brutal clear night last night. Seeing was BAD. Upper level turbulence. So bad that the guide cam was losing the star constantly. Sucks when you get so few clear nights.
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Where I image from on the central coast of California, we've been getting battered with storms the past few months. If not that, then the marine layer ruins any chance of imaging (unless you're high up) and if not that, the seeing might be bad due to high winds. The worst nights for me are when its perfectly clear but the seeing is horrible, where I don't even bother to image. I don't see the situation getting better or worse for the next few months.
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Christian Bennich:
The weather in DK has been horrible this winter for astrophotography. There are very few clear nights, and there is often lots of wind, which minimizes my chances even more.
To improve my situation, I have made myself a nice little windshed, which works really really well. This means I can now image in windy conditions with my 8" newt, which is super sensitive to wind.
A few nights ago, I was imaging in 7 m/s wind, with gusts around 10 m/s.
I was guiding at around 0,75" on average.
So more nights to image on now.
I would prefer to only image on nights with clear skies all night, but I am trying to find solutions to take advantage of more nights, with only partly clear skies....without having to build a full-blown observatory in my backyard 
To get more from the available nights, I am also considering building an additional rig to image more targets simultaneously.
Refuse to loose attitude  - but I must admit, that I am seriously considering finding an off-site hosting center, with more clear skies, than we have in DK.
Hi Christian
Fellow dane here. Would you mind sharing an image of your windshed? I have been thinking of a simular solution.
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@Lasse Skov - absolutely. Will take a few pictures tomorrow…kind of dark now 🤣🤣
But, in all honesty, it’s just a “box” made of 2 mtr. 3/4” steelpipe, some, corner fittings and 2x2 mtr. tarpaulins from amazon.
In DK the steelpipes and corner fittings has been bought here - https://shop.erik-larsen.dk/collections/ror/products/pipe-galv?variant=22973146234938
and the corner fittings here: https://shop.erik-larsen.dk/collections/ror-og-ror-fittings/products/cl128?variant=31959177068627
Images tomorrow 👍
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Christian Bennich:
@Lasse Skov - absolutely. Will take a few pictures tomorrow…kind of dark now 🤣🤣
But, in all honesty, it’s just a “box” made of 2 mtr. 3/4” steelpipe, some, corner fittings and 2x2 mtr. tarpaulins from amazon.
In DK the steelpipes and corner fittings has been bought here - https://shop.erik-larsen.dk/collections/ror/products/pipe-galv?variant=22973146234938
and the corner fittings here: https://shop.erik-larsen.dk/collections/ror-og-ror-fittings/products/cl128?variant=31959177068627
Images tomorrow 👍
@Christian Bennich
Thanks for the links. Looks like an easy and simplistic solution (which is always a plus). I look forward to see the pictures  |
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Great question.
Like most folks here, I image in clear or clear(ish) conditions. Also avoid the moon when it is up over over 60% full. (Saving up for 3nm filters to extend this a little).
Haze and humidity are increasing problems, but affect NB and BB differently. If there is haze, I will do NB.
I also impose the condition that it has a 10% chance of less of raining overnight, as I leave the shed roofs open when I go to bed. (Living 1h45min west of the time zone, for more the six months of the year, means late starts for much of the year.
Nevertheless, I can’t complain as I live in Bortle 2 and in the rain shadow of the NZ southern alps. The seeing is “average”; 3 arcsec is a good night, but BXT helps me out.
Looking at my gallery (where I put everything I image), I would complete around 4 images per lunation on the main rig, each taking on average 1.5 nights. So around 6nights in 18 or one night in three (one night in four allowing for full moon).
Although I do moan about the weather like others here (astronomers are worse than farmers for this), I should really consider myself lucky compared the majority of people’s experiences.
Brian
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@Brian Boyle Thanks for the Comment Brian.
Yes sounds like an amazing place to image and i can see from your pictures, they are absolutely Amazing just spent 10 minutes looking through them all. Great work.
1 night in 3 wow I’d love that haha.
I still image when we have a full moon I just tend to choose a target away from it.
I still haven’t had a clear night since posting this form. 😅
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Living in the Netherlands with its sea climate, I rate any year with 4 or 5 photos as a really good year. Accepting there basically is no AP from November - February. By the way I hate being outside in the cold, haha.
It helps if you have a permanent observatory, which I don't :-). Having a busy job and children also makes AP limited to the weekends or the holidays. So you have to be a bit lucky with your clear nights.
I learned to stop worrying about the weather. It's a hobby so I don't want to stress about it.
CS!
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This past year has been awful in the USA midwest. In 2020, I was out shooting 2 days a week most of the year. Between the wildfires from the north and humidity from the south, I've only been able to get out about 2-3 days a month. I almost get ready to chuck the hobby when a clear night shows up and I'm revived. Between the weather and occasional equipment bugs, it can get really frustrating!
I'm also disappointed in the increase in light pollution here. I'm 5 miles outside a small city (at 800 feet) and have seen conditions deteriorate from Bortle 4.5 (SQM magnitude 20.12) to Bortle 5 (19.7). On many otherwise clear nights only the brightest stars are visible. Cameras and filters see more, but the image is still less than it could be.
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Chris Addison:
@Brian Boyle Thanks for the Comment Brian.
Yes sounds like an amazing place to image and i can see from your pictures, they are absolutely Amazing just spent 10 minutes looking through them all. Great work.
1 night in 3 wow I’d love that haha.
I still image when we have a full moon I just tend to choose a target away from it.
I still haven’t had a clear night since posting this form. 😅
Chris, You are very kind. Many of those images were made on public sessions at my observatory, as I run night sessions for visitors.
Chris, You are very kind. Many of those images were made on public sessions at my observatory, as I run night sessions for visitors. [Lucky enough to to be located in on the world's premier wine growing regions, with my own vineyard.
CS Brian
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Chris, I’m just East of you in Derbyshire. Worst winter rain I’ve ever known, and I haven’t even bothered setting up my SCT this year. I’ve been a visual, AP and now imaging, on/off for years.
I bought /built digital setting circles for my SCT to speed up targeting, then a colour camera to maximise data acquisition. Over the past 12 months I’ve developed a portable ‘grab ‘n go’ rig with fast optics to allow me to exploit short windows - takes 10 minutes to be up and imaging. Like others with work / family commitments I typically get a couple of opportunities a month.
keep at it.
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@Lasse Skov - and others that are considering similar arrangements.
This little windshed allow me to image in windy conditions with my newt.
If I didn't have this set up - winds faster than 3-4 m/sec would throw off the scope/guiding.
With this arrangement, I have imaged in 7-8 m/sec wind with guiding around 0,8".
I am considering, buying 2 more tarpaulins, to close the last side and make a "roof", so I can cover the scope also adding a telegizmos cover, to then leave the scope relatively well protected in the "astro shed" between sessions
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Brian Boyle:
Chris Addison:
@Brian Boyle Thanks for the Comment Brian.
Yes sounds like an amazing place to image and i can see from your pictures, they are absolutely Amazing just spent 10 minutes looking through them all. Great work.
1 night in 3 wow I’d love that haha.
I still image when we have a full moon I just tend to choose a target away from it.
I still haven’t had a clear night since posting this form. 😅
Chris, You are very kind. Many of those images were made on public sessions at my observatory, as I run night sessions for visitors. [Lucky enough to to be located in on the world's premier wine growing regions, with my own vineyard.
CS Brian
When, at some point in my life, my compass takes me to NZ - I will most definitely drop by for a public session and taste some of that pristine NZ wine |
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Christian Bennich:
@Lasse Skov - and others that are considering similar arrangements.
This little windshed allow me to image in windy conditions with my newt.
If I didn't have this set up - winds faster than 3-4 m/sec would throw off the scope/guiding.
With this arrangement, I have imaged in 7-8 m/sec wind with guiding around 0,8".
I am considering, buying 2 more tarpaulins, to close the last side and make a "roof", so I can cover the scope also adding a telegizmos cover, to then leave the scope relatively well protected in the "astro shed" between sessions
Uhh, I like this a lot. Do you secure it to the ground using tent pegs (telt pløkker)?
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Christian Bennich:
Brian Boyle:
Chris Addison:
@Brian Boyle Thanks for the Comment Brian.
Yes sounds like an amazing place to image and i can see from your pictures, they are absolutely Amazing just spent 10 minutes looking through them all. Great work.
1 night in 3 wow I’d love that haha.
I still image when we have a full moon I just tend to choose a target away from it.
I still haven’t had a clear night since posting this form. 😅
Chris, You are very kind. Many of those images were made on public sessions at my observatory, as I run night sessions for visitors. [Lucky enough to to be located in on the world's premier wine growing regions, with my own vineyard.
CS Brian
When, at some point in my life, my compass takes me to NZ - I will most definitely drop by for a public session and taste some of that pristine NZ wine
You would be most welcome. As would the rest of my AB friends.
CS Brian
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Lasse Skov:
Christian Bennich:
@Lasse Skov - and others that are considering similar arrangements.
This little windshed allow me to image in windy conditions with my newt.
If I didn't have this set up - winds faster than 3-4 m/sec would throw off the scope/guiding.
With this arrangement, I have imaged in 7-8 m/sec wind with guiding around 0,8".
I am considering, buying 2 more tarpaulins, to close the last side and make a "roof", so I can cover the scope also adding a telegizmos cover, to then leave the scope relatively well protected in the "astro shed" between sessions
Uhh, I like this a lot. Do you secure it to the ground using tent pegs (telt pløkker)?
@Lasse Skov, I use a set of these to anchor it.
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/MONZANA®-Trampoline-Adjustable-Rustproof-Attachment/dp/B09TRFH844/ |
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Christian Bennich:
Lasse Skov:
Christian Bennich:
@Lasse Skov - and others that are considering similar arrangements.
This little windshed allow me to image in windy conditions with my newt.
If I didn't have this set up - winds faster than 3-4 m/sec would throw off the scope/guiding.
With this arrangement, I have imaged in 7-8 m/sec wind with guiding around 0,8".
I am considering, buying 2 more tarpaulins, to close the last side and make a "roof", so I can cover the scope also adding a telegizmos cover, to then leave the scope relatively well protected in the "astro shed" between sessions
Uhh, I like this a lot. Do you secure it to the ground using tent pegs (telt pløkker)?
@Lasse Skov, I use a set of these to anchor it.
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/MONZANA®-Trampoline-Adjustable-Rustproof-Attachment/dp/B09TRFH844/
@Christian Bennich Thank you very much
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0.90
0.90
0.00
11.02
1.81
8.07
2.41
2.15
0.00
1.91
16.18
0.90
2.41
