151 replies to this topic

[PYeomans]

Clear here last night and today, hopefully tonight too. We've been under a continuous storm cover for weeks and as Dave Mitsky mentioned wayyyy ahead on rainfall. 

[Sebastian_Sajaroff]

Full clouds and rain in Montreal QC for the last 4 weeks except for one (1!) single sunny day and night.
I should build a radio telescope and observe through clouds.

[Dave Mitsky]

Well, it was mostly clear early tonight and I was able to track a bright pass of the Lacrosse 5 rocket and view a handful of double stars and a few DSOs with my Canon 15x50 IS but when I went outside again about half an hour later to catch a bright ISS pass the sky was almost completely cloudy.  I was able to see the ISS about half a dozen times through small breaks in the clouds.

[Peter Besenbruch]

Two clear nights in a row. Good stuff. I'm photographing a section of sky with bright stars, and tiny, dim, slightly off color, distorted things; part of an Abell cluster.

[daveb2022]

I think I've broke a personal record. Looking back on my log book, I've set up every night so far this month. 

On May second, it was a shorter night with horrible conditions, and I've had a night or two that ended by midnight, but the rest have been highly productive. This has never happen. 

The winds have been bad, but I'm sheltered and 30 MPH winds do not bother me. 

I only had a couple nights where the seeing was what I consider bad, or I had to dodge clouds. 

 

However, I've yet to have a very-steady night (at all this year) and have not had an extremely dark night like I had last year. I've only had a couple evenings dark enough to reach 18.60.

 

 

Last night was better, but it made 18.55 tonight, and the seeing was average. Using NV and the 925, I was able to observe several galaxies not listed on my S&T Pocket chart. I was able to split STF 1819 in the 101@154x and that is a .9" split... can't complain.

 

Last year I was able to observe 21 days in May, so I'm already ahead.

[Tony Flanders]

It's been a pretty rainy May here on the NY/MA border -- 6.2 inches so far on our personal rain gauge, and chance of showers forecast for today and the next few days. I'm not sure how that compares to normal; my guess is that we average about 5 inches of precipitation per month, pretty much constant across the entire year. The Appalachians are a wet mountain range, as you can tell from the names of the mountains. The highest mountain in Massachusetts, for instance, is Greylock, and indeed it has a cloud cap when everything around is clear. Then there's the Smoky Mountains down south, which might be more appropriately named the Misty Mountains.

 

Currently, Monday night is forecast to be Mostly Clear. If that doesn't pan out, there likely won't be any deep-sky observing this month. But that's perfectly normal in this part of the world, so I'm not especially disappointed. With astronomical twilight currently ending at 10:23 PM and still gettting later, I'm not exactly thrilled about astronomy in May and June even when the weather is at its best.

[scout]

It's been clear skies here in Northern California for most of the month and it should stay that way until late Fall, as long as there is no wildfire smoke this Summer. We've been lucky the past couple of years to have smoke-free skies here. 

[Amazed]

14 bad days in a row.
Maybe tonight will clear up

[Tony Cifani]

Here in NC, many "clear" nights in a row but not really all that clear, just a deceptive blanket of thin hazy clouds lingering in the night sky. These photos show the thin veil of clouds exaggerated a little by my phone's night vision, but not good for sky transparency. Frustrating to discover this after setting up my scope to cool down at dusk only to realize later visibility is greatly impaired.

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[WillR]

It’s been the rainiest month I can remember here, and cold. I’ve probably had the fewest nights of observing of any month since I started. The irises are just starting to bloom and the peonies haven’t bloomed yet.

 

But the end of April was great. 

[Illinois]

Lot of cloudy here in northern Illinois. Last year (2024) is one of the best year for me for many years that I am lucky to see Sun Eclipse, Jupiter tight to Mars, and Aurora twice.  So far this year is pretty bad and hope good clear night this summer to winter. Get your telescope be ready for last minute grab and go!  
 

i remember reading in astronomy magazine that high percent clear night per year is far southwest of America.  Arizona is popular for serious astronomers to live there and some place is pretty dark.  Very hot in summer! 

Edited by Illinois, 25 May 2025 - 06:07 AM.

[CHASLX200]

Because apparently I'm going to have to start living vicariously through you if there is. I'm starting to wonder if here in Texas we're even going to get our bone dry, 110 degrees at midnight weather through the summer that is typical. Since the weekend weather has been shot (except for the weekends I can't get out to observe of course) I've tried week night observing on the infrequent nights that it's clear. But with the moon rising late now and only a handful of anything that can observed from my Bortle 9 skies it hasn't exactly been much fun. Even doing any solar observing has been a lot more miss than hit.

 

Just felt the need to vent. So, if you've been having clear skies consider yourself lucky. A lot of us haven't been.

My yard will avg 100% sunshine most of the summer and no rain since we are in a west flow and showers build 2 to 50 miles inland and move away toward the east coast. I get clouds every nite from the blow off from T storms that are never near me. Every AM is clear with 8+ seeing in the summer. I am right on the gulf in FL.

Edited by CHASLX200, 25 May 2025 - 06:28 AM.

[Battlestamps]

It's been a pretty rainy May here on the NY/MA border -- 6.2 inches so far on our personal rain gauge, and chance of showers forecast for today and the next few days. I'm not sure how that compares to normal; my guess is that we average about 5 inches of precipitation per month, pretty much constant across the entire year. The Appalachians are a wet mountain range, as you can tell from the names of the mountains. The highest mountain in Massachusetts, for instance, is Greylock, and indeed it has a cloud cap when everything around is clear. Then there's the Smoky Mountains down south, which might be more appropriately named the Misty Mountains.

 

Currently, Monday night is forecast to be Mostly Clear. If that doesn't pan out, there likely won't be any deep-sky observing this month. But that's perfectly normal in this part of the world, so I'm not especially disappointed. With astronomical twilight currently ending at 10:23 PM and still gettting later, I'm not exactly thrilled about astronomy in May and June even when the weather is at its best.

You're just south of me. I'm on the NY side of where NY, VT and MA come together. Weather has been miserable. The local star parties at Grafton Lakes State Park have been cancelled as they were last month too. I'm hoping Monday night will be favorable. I hope to go all night with the visual and smart scopes if it pans out favorably.  

[jrussell]

Got a break for a few hours yesterday that coincided with a break in the clouds so I managed to get about an hour and a half of solar observing in so that was nice. Clouds moved back in in the evening but I was happy. Just glad to have finally gotten some scope time in.

[truckerfromaustin]

I have not used any of my telescopes in the past 3 months due to my ability to be at the right place at the wrong time. I'm going to take a week off and fly to Portland, Oregon to pick up a telescope and some other equipment. I'm going to rent a car to drive back to Texas. I'm going to get to a dark site with good seeing conditions one way or another! I'm planning to use the Weather Channel, the US Weather Map, Infrared satellite imagery, and possibly burning a junk telescope to appease the weather gods. I might have to drive 1.200 miles in a day, but I'm going to look through a telescope! I'm bringing my passport in case I have to drive to Mexico or Canada.

CS

[Tony Flanders]

The local star parties at Grafton Lakes State Park ((New York)) have been cancelled as they were last month too. I'm hoping Monday night will be favorable.

I didn't know there was a regular star party near me! Can you say more? It is, alas, no doubt brighter than my own house, being closer to Albany. But still something I might do sometime.

I have a bad feeling about tonight -- but we'll see. For what it's worth, here's the temperate graph for nearby Pittsfield, MA:



As you can see, the last week has been way colder than usual, but it was abnormally warm the previous week. It all balances out in the long run, more or less.

[Battlestamps]

I didn't know there was a regular star party near me! Can you say more? It is, alas, no doubt brighter than my own house, being closer to Albany. But still something I might do sometime.

I have a bad feeling about tonight -- but we'll see. For what it's worth, here's the temperate graph for nearby Pittsfield, MA:

 

Scroll through the Albany Club Facebook page and you'll find the schedule for this year. It's pretty informal - just show up. 

 

https://www.facebook...808216819909372

 

The Hoosick, NY area is still looking decent for today - at least the best potential night for May so far. 

Edited by Battlestamps, 26 May 2025 - 11:18 AM.

[Don W]

What was the subject of this thread? I forgot.

[GSwaim]

It's raining today in East Texas, tomorrow is supposedly sunny. We"ll see...

[JayinUT]

Weather has been off and on here in northern Utah.  However, last night I got out for a wonderful night in Utah's West Desert for the second time of observing this week.  I observed until 4:00 a.m. and it was incredible. Spent time in Virgo, Coma Berenices, Cygnus, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Ursa Major.  Just an incredible night and around 3:20 a.m. had one of the best view I have had of the Veil Nebula and LOVED sketching it.  SQM L was about 21.7 this night, stars were steady, Antoniadi I, seeing was very good, transparency went from good to very good. 

 

  

  

  

 

That little cloud dissipated after sunset. It was the only cloud in the sky. I was hoping to go out tonight but alas. clouds get in the way tonight. 

Edited by JayinUT, 26 May 2025 - 03:21 PM.

[jrussell]

Nice. That’s the kind of night I could really use.

[Tony Flanders]

Well, last night actually was completely clear and reasonably transparent here on the NY/MA border. So the May new Moon cycle hasn't been a complete bust, as I feared it would be. The dew was truly intense -- the grass was already soaked even before the Sun set. But that wasn't a problem given that I was using my solid-tube Dob.

 

One night per month may not sound like much, but we've had plenty of 2- or even 3-month stretches with no clear, transparent, moonless nights.

[RetiredDave]

New Mexico, as long as the AZ folks keep their fire smoke out of our skies.

Any smoke problems you have are probably coming from Mexico.

[csrlice12]

It's too foggy to see if it's cloudy out   We're in our Monsoon season here.

[ABQJeff]

Any smoke problems you have are probably coming from Mexico.

This week, yes. A couple weeks ago there was a nice flare up near Alpine pumping lots of smoke towards ABQ.

Also, I can playfully needle my four corner neighbors (looking at you 12BH7! ;-)). I have little influence, playful or otherwise, over goings on in Mexico.

And for the record, we had a lovely weekend in Tucson. Our Star Pass room had a southern view, skies were just a tad darker than my home driveway. Omega Centauri was high and beautiful in my Canon 15x50IS in the evening, and Cat’s Paw and surrounding nebula were fantastic in the PVS-14 with 70mm F/4 finder scope and 40mm plossl (7x) on Monday morning. Daytime activities were equally enjoyable. Tip of the hat to the Grand Canyon state (but still glad to be back home in Land of Enchantment.)