68 replies to this topic

[JayinUT]

Where is this magical place where the weather is good so often?
 

Well UT is Utah . . . this winter was mild and not so bad. It does mean we are back into a moderate to severe drought LINK here though. In 2022-23 winter we had record snowfall and that was not a good winter for observing . . . just depends on the year. It does seem to cycle here so we'll have 2-3 mild winters and then 1-2 harsh winters. Southern Utah is pretty good year round though. 

Edited by JayinUT, 13 May 2025 - 02:45 PM.

[jrussell]

Just checked the long range 30 day forecast. I'm starting to give up hope of there ever being a cloudless weekend night apart from the ones where my wife has already made plans for us. Guess I'm going to have to start taking some weekdays off work to have a clear night that I can go somewhere dark to observe.

[RetiredDave]

Well UT is Utah . . . this winter was mild and not so bad. It does mean we are back into a moderate to severe drought LINK here though. In 2022-23 winter we had record snowfall and that was not a good winter for observing . . . just depends on the year. It does seem to cycle here so we'll have 2-3 mild winters and then 1-2 harsh winters. Southern Utah is pretty good year round though.

I got Utah from UT. I was looking for a locale in Utah, since it is a good sized state with varried terrain. You've narrowed it down to Southern UT.

I'm in North Carolina, but that tells you very little about my potential location based observing conditions, since we have a climate and topography from sub-tropical maritime coast to 6000+ temperate mountains. C'mon Man!

[luxo II]

It has been atrocious on the east coast of Australia - east of the dividing range has had almost constant cloud cover and record rainfalls. A side effect of the cloud is night-time temperatures are crazy - 5 degrees above normal, and with the humidity close to 100% all the time, when the night sky does occasionally clear, fog forms quickly as the night air cools.

West of the range however it has been a lot better, but that’s a 3-4 hour drive each way. Very frustrating to watch on webcams across the state.

Edited by luxo II, 13 May 2025 - 06:53 PM.

[JoeBlow]

It has been atrocious on the east coast of Australia - east of the dividing range has had almost constant cloud cover and record rainfalls. A side effect of the cloud is night-time temperatures are crazy - 5 degrees above normal, and with the humidity close to 100% all the time, when the night sky does occasionally clear, fog forms quickly as the night air cools.

West of the range however it has been a lot better, but that’s a 3-4 hour drive each way. Very frustrating to watch on webcams across the state.

 

Can confirm everything you said. On clear nights at my dark site, I almost instantly get fog and dew. A couple weeks ago, the dew was so bad I had a puddle of water 5mm deep in my eyepiece tray.

[RetiredDave]

Can confirm everything you said. On clear nights at my dark site, I almost instantly get fog and dew. A couple weeks ago, the dew was so bad I had a puddle of water 5mm deep in my eyepiece tray.

I feel your pain. "Dew" season just got kick-started here in eastern NC with ~7 inches of rain. Mid to upper 70's for lows with 98-100% humidity is not uncommon in the summer. It's a pain to put equipment out in conditions where they are exposed to heavy dew on a regular basis, not to mention the increased chance for water intrusion and damaged coatings. I need to move to AZ (or somewhere in Southern UT).

Edited by RetiredDave, 14 May 2025 - 07:25 AM.

[luxo II]

Once upon a time, May was a wonderful time to be in Sydney - not hot, not cold, and lots of crisp clear blue skies. Here's what we have had for most of the past 4 years.

 

Even London has a better climate for stargazing.

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Edited by luxo II, 15 May 2025 - 04:13 AM.

[JoeBlow]

Once upon a time, May was a wonderful time to be in Sydney - not hot, not cold, and lots of crisp clear blue skies. Here's what we have had for most of the past 4 years.

 

Even London has a better climate for stargazing.

 

Believe it or not I was just about to post my local forecast from outer suburban Sydney! But yeah, it's been that bad and not just for the month of May. Also light pollution has been quite noticeably worse the past few years, although there are probably number of factors contributing to that, but one factor must be the high humidity.

[ken30809]

Seems like there's no where else to go to escape it (reasonable distance that is). Thank God for Cloudynights :-)

[RetiredDave]

Something else wonderful I discovered this year: it is burning season in Mexico! From March to June, farmers in Mexico and Central America burn their fields/old crops, en masses apparently. The smoke plume almost entirely covers the entire southeast part of the United States. Awesome!!

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Edited by RetiredDave, 15 May 2025 - 03:58 PM.

[jwheel]

In far west Texas it has been dry, windy, and dusty.

[HellsKitchen]

As far as clear nights go, there's been plenty out here in the Riverland.  Only 16mm of rain recorded YTD, it's been extremely dry. It's been the WIND that has been the killer. Over the last few months, particularly over summer, the wind would pick up around sunset or just after sunset and get surprisingly gusty on what was  otherwise a day of fairly calm conditions. 

Edited by HellsKitchen, 16 May 2025 - 06:00 AM.

[daveb2022]

Looking at my logs from March and April of 2024 compared to this year, I'm finding each month has been somewhat evenly matched. 

 

In (March) 2024 I had 16 evenings observing, and this year (2025), (while it seems like I had less days), I set up 17 nights. In April of 2024 I had 20 nights of observing and in 2025 I had 23 days. Scanning over my older logs/notes, it seems I had very similar conditions in 2022 and 2023. Forest fire smoke during the Fall season has been more of an issue in the past, but I've been lucky the last 4 years. In 2018-2019 the fall months were so bad smoke wise, it rained ash...no observing.

Edited by daveb2022, 17 May 2025 - 03:33 AM.

[BGazing]

A really miserable spring in Europe, cyclone after cyclone. I caught literally one clear and magic night so far, but fingers crossed for the upcoming New Moon.

This is the worst may since 2018, where I got about 2 hours of Jupiter opposition (it was nice, Io occulting its shadow, but cmon - two measly hour).

It's like I am living in the tropics, except that I am not, and am limited to Northern constellations.

[Mike W]

!!!!!!!!!!!! And another system on the way Monday...............

 

 

 

https://www.cleardar...ndsAbNYkey.html

Edited by Mike W, 16 May 2025 - 03:52 PM.

[Lee.S]

Southeast N.M.lots of wind and dust..no moisture to curb the effect 

Regards 

L.S.

[Cpk133]

We’ve had some really nice stretches of clear blue here in MI this spring.  Trouble is I’ve not been taking advantage due to family and work issues that always seem to get in the way.  I’ve come to accept the fact that there are only a handful of days a year when the weather, planets, moon and my schedule align.  I don’t fret or fight it anymore, just take what I can get and smile.

[kgb]

We’ve had some pretty screwy weather on Long Island. For a couple days, last week, it got into the mid 40’s (unheard of for the end of May). But for the most part, it has been very cloudy/rainy with just a few hours of clear skies occurring very early in the morning for one or two days in the past month and a half. The last time I got any imaging time was April 9th and that was with an 87% illuminated moon. Normally, I don’t let the clouds bother me too much, but I live for galaxy season so it has me a little dejected. Wonder how the weather will be this summer?

[Overtime]

Last night here in the suburbs of Philadelphia PA as the sky got dark it once again looked like the sky was becoming cloudy. After looking after it got actually dark I noticed the sky had cleared up. What I thought was going to be another crappy night for viewing now looked possible. I decided as I was about to go to bed that the sky was near clear so I decided to forgo sleep. I was lucky to view about 10 different targets and with the help of my Seestar s50 I was able to get some cool pictures. most were DSO objects ( galaxies and nebulas) that I hadn't considered when I started the hobby. I was even able to view the Moon, Venus, Saturn and I might have seen Neptune ( though it was VERY small ). The only planetary object I got a decent picture of was the moon ( what was left of it). I also observed one of the neighbor down the streets porch light. I was using the go-to to find the moon and for some reason it chose the light. Once I manually refocused it it was more obvious it wasn't the moon. Especially since I could see the moon with my eyes and what I saw was too round. When I got things into focus I finally figured out what I was looking at when I noticed the house number in the pictures frame. By then it was getting very light the sun hadn't risen yet and I cleaned up and went to bed.

Edited by Overtime, 25 May 2025 - 01:57 PM.

[RetiredDave]

More clouds and rain here for at least a week.

[jrussell]

Got a break in the clouds yesterday afternoon so I was able to get about an hour and a half of solar observing in. Nights have still been cloudy and/or windy though.

[Tony Cifani]

There is more humidity, which creates more clouds. The reason is banned from discussion here.

But things are not likely to get better. Overall, some areas may get a bit better, some may get worse. But mostly the cloud level on any given night in any given location is just a matter of luck.

We can discuss the science behind it, just not the politics surrounding it, correct?

[HellsKitchen]

Very strong winds and dust here atm, temps/dewpoint  21C/-3C

 

Meanwhile, heavy rain and storms in Adelaide, but it is hitting a wall looking at the radar. Long range forecast shows no rain, so the 16mm YTD total shall stay. Like Aswan Egypt. Meanwhile coastal NSW copped 600mm in 2 days, 4 people are dead and hundreds of homes are under water. And models show more rain there. 600mm is 3 years worth of rain here....

Absurd. 

Edited by HellsKitchen, 26 May 2025 - 12:06 AM.

[HellsKitchen]

Holy God they found life on Mars. Turns out, that life is me. Can confirm the blue sun as previously confirmed by the Perserverence Rover. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by HellsKitchen, 25 May 2025 - 11:21 PM.

[jrussell]

Looks like West Texas (and sometimes other parts) during a good dust storm.