151 replies to this topic

[RetiredDave]

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.)

I will eventually have a home in Arizona or New Mexico. Either is far better than where I live now as far as astronomy goes. I'm still figuring which has a better economic environment for retirees, and trying to find that magical place that is consistently dark, unlikely to be built up, and has excellent seeing most of the time.

Apparently the smoke from Mexico is an annual event where the farmers in Central America and Mexico burn off their fields. It's been like this since March, and will last a couple more weeks. Lucky for you, Tucson is far enough west to avoid the smoke for the most part.

[GSwaim]

Too many clouds in East Texas today for any decent observing. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

[ABQJeff]

I will eventually have a home in Arizona or New Mexico. Either is far better than where I live now as far as astronomy goes. I'm still figuring which has a better economic environment for retirees, and trying to find that magical place that is consistently dark, unlikely to be built up, and has excellent seeing most of the time.

Apparently the smoke from Mexico is an annual event where the farmers in Central America and Mexico burn off their fields. It's been like this since March, and will last a couple more weeks. Lucky for you, Tucson is far enough west to avoid the smoke for the most part.

Yep but NM (my home) is sometimes in Mexico smoke path (not nearly as bad as Texas).

On NM vs AZ, NM is less populous, has more dark skies and has less chance of build up vs AZ. NM is an anti-growth state (or some call it pro -limit human impact? or pro-keep it undeveloped? or pro-poverty?). NM also has worse health care at present.

For disabled vets NM has more benefits and relatively easy access to care if near a VA hospital. I am primarily in NM for good vs other states bc of veteran benefits.

I would look at other hobbies, for instance skiing. New Mexico has much better skiing and easier access to Colorado and equal access to Utah.

Also your temperature tolerance. Is snow ok? Is 110 degree weather ok?

[dan_hm]

One lesson I’m learning this spring is to never trust the forecast - whether it’s for clear skies or clouds. Last night was supposed to be cloudy but ended up being beautifully clear. My visual setup is super light and simple (FC-100DF on RST-135) so it’s easy to observe on a whim.

[Bill Weir]

Don’t know what people are talking about. Checking in here from what the rest of Canada wrongly refers to as the Wet Coast of Canada. 

 

Tonight I’ll be 5 minutes down the road at my hilltop location. That is the continental US of A in the distance past my scope with 40km of water separating us. 

 

Bill

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[ShaulaB]

Even if skies are completely cloud free, we have had skies ruined from wildfire smoke from thousands of miles away.

[72Nova]

We average about 360 days of sunshine in the Palm Springs area.  I get a little perturbed on the rare cloudy night.

[GSwaim]

High altitude smog from fires appears to be a ongoing issue right now in certain parts of the USA...

Edited by GSwaim, 27 May 2025 - 04:29 PM.

[Mike W]

Death valley.

[Marcus1]

If it’s not twinkling it’s tinkling for the last month

[Dave Mitsky]

Well, it was clear on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights to a greater or lesser degree, with Saturday night being the best in terms of transparency, but I've been too sick to do anything more than some binocular observing and Seestar S50 imaging from my red zone front yard.

[RetiredDave]

Yep but NM (my home) is sometimes in Mexico smoke path (not nearly as bad as Texas).

On NM vs AZ, NM is less populous, has more dark skies and has less chance of build up vs AZ. NM is an anti-growth state (or some call it pro -limit human impact? or pro-keep it undeveloped? or pro-poverty?). NM also has worse health care at present.

For disabled vets NM has more benefits and relatively easy access to care if near a VA hospital. I am primarily in NM for good vs other states bc of veteran benefits.

I would look at other hobbies, for instance skiing. New Mexico has much better skiing and easier access to Colorado and equal access to Utah.

Also your temperature tolerance. Is snow ok? Is 110 degree weather ok?

I'm one of those disabled vets, so access to health care is a consideration. As are taxes, so the improving state income tax situation in NM helps.

I grew up in the southeast, where snow is rare and special. I still love me some snow. I was stationed in Ft. Drum, NY for 4 years, so I know how to deal with it. I also spent many years in various deserts, so 110 is fine, as long as it's a dry heat. Sometimes at night where I live, it is in the low 80's and close to 100% humidity, so yes, I'll take that 110 degrees and 15-20% humidity 100 times out of 100.

[RetiredDave]

Even if skies are completely cloud free, we have had skies ruined from wildfire smoke from thousands of miles away.

Wild fires, or on purpose fires? The agricultural fires in Mexico have been smoking up the skies for most of the southeastern US for almost 3 months.

I understand the wildfires in Canada were a huge problem last year though.

[m1thumb]

My SC fore cast for next 45 days is:

3 sunny
3 mostly sunny
15 partly sunny
9 mostly cloudy
15 cloudy

I've lived here a year and still don't know why it's called the sun belt.

Edited to say descriptions are based on cloud/sun depictions from each day. Partly sunny is also mostly cloudy but less so than what i termed "mostly cloudy."

Edited by m1thumb, 28 May 2025 - 01:31 PM.

[Neanderthal]

Even if skies are completely cloud free, we have had skies ruined from wildfire smoke from thousands of miles away.

In the past few months, even what very few cloudless nights we had, usually were accompanied by high winds, so Seeing was still abysmal.

[Silent_Light]

I'm in south central Colo on the side of the mountains... We now average 7-9" precip annually. If/when rain actually reaches the ground (verga) it's dry as a bone again within hours. It's usually clear 4 nights a week avg.

[ABQJeff]

I'm one of those disabled vets, so access to health care is a consideration. As are taxes, so the improving state income tax situation in NM helps.

I grew up in the southeast, where snow is rare and special. I still love me some snow. I was stationed in Ft. Drum, NY for 4 years, so I know how to deal with it. I also spent many years in various deserts, so 110 is fine, as long as it's a dry heat. Sometimes at night where I live, it is in the low 80's and close to 100% humidity, so yes, I'll take that 110 degrees and 15-20% humidity 100 times out of 100.

Well then, weather wise, just about anywhere in NM and AZ will work. The northern and high altitude parts of the states get snow, but rarely get above 100, the southern parts of the states can get to 110+ but no snow. All have 20% humidity (when not precipitating.)

As far as vet benefits in NM, NM exempts $30K of military retirement from income tax and property taxes on primary residence are exempted at same level of disability (eg 30% disabled 30% property tax exemption, 100% disabled = no property taxes!). Also at 50% disability license plates (up to two cars) are a one time registration and are good for life, transferable to a new car (no recurring license plates fees.) Add in military discounts at retailers, ski hills, etc., low cost of living, low gas prices, four military bases (everywhere in NM is within a 3 hour drive of a military base), dark skies, best steeps skiing in US (Taos!), and if you are a Science geek (esp Physics) … it is heaven!

“If there was only some way to combine Physics and New Mexico…” (from Oppenheimer movie) (My So Cal wife rolled her eyes at that one, NM is too podunk for her. But I pay the bills with that Veteran/Physicist salary, so there you go….NM we stay!)

Edited by ABQJeff, 28 May 2025 - 07:02 PM.

[KI5CAW]

I'm in south central Colo on the side of the mountains... We now average 7-9" precip annually. If/when rain actually reaches the ground (verga) it's dry as a bone again within hours. It's usually clear 4 nights a week avg.

"verga" has an unpleasant meaning. You're referring to "virga"/

[WillR]

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.

Yeah, had a good night for observing Monday and I crossed a bunch of galaxies off my Herschel 400 list. But May has been the wettest month I can ever remember. I had only two other nights I could do some observing before the moon rose. But easily the fewest clear nights of any month since I started observing.

 

And of course now it is raining again.

[Dave Mitsky]

This month has had the second highest rainfall total on record.

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[Jon Isaacs]

This month has had the second highest rainfall total on record.

 

Those look more like yearly totals for San Diego.  We average about 10 inches a year. A few years ago we got 3.2 inches for the year.

 

Jon

[csrlice12]

Colorado had its rainiest day ever recorded a couple of days ago....and we're getting more....Also, it's mothra season.

[KBHornblower]

When we have long cloudy/rainy spells I empathize with the pioneering astronomers in much of Europe, where such weather is commonplace.  For example, the asteroid 719 Albert, discovered at Vienna in 1911, was lost in part because bad weather interfered with attempts at follow-up observation after it was seen over a very short arc for a few days.

[jrussell]

Finally a decent forecast for this weekend and who screws their knee up the other day? This guy    It's better today so maybe tomorrow night it'll be good enough for me to hobble out to the yard with one of the small scopes. Was thinking I might try in a little while with my little solar scope since there's some good sunspot activity right now if I can get my son to carry my gear outside.

[GSwaim]

Tomorrow is sunny in my location... FINALLY..