Still Waiting for better weather

[ianB]

I have been waiting for around three weeks or more for the weather to get better ( Sunshine Coast ) so that I can start viewing again, the last few days have had some great clear sky but the jetstream has been so high, very frustrating, last night and tonight its at an estimated 120 knots!

Any suggestions as to what I can view when transparancy is good but the winds very high?


ian

[raymo]

At least you can view something; I've been socked in for many
weeks. You could try some higher power exploration on the moon.
raymo

[Astro_Bot]

I'm beginning to think that the a fast jetstream and clear nights are related (i.e. more likely to be clear when jetstream is fast).

[noeyedeer]

open clusters seem to be good when the jetstream is in effect. dso stuff seems to be more forgiving then closer objects.
matt

[Octane]

Last night was amazing. Imaging at 530mm was no problem. :)

I called it quits at 10 PM when I had to do a meridian flip.

H

[rustigsmed]

in melbourne it has been like the movie 'the matrix' but not actually in the matrix, the future world where humanity blocked out the sun with clouds... deadset been a couple of months. to be fair around full moon there seems to be a clear night or two ...

[ianB]

Octane, you are also here on the Sunny coast, so you had great views the other night when the JS was fast, what were you able to view with your telescope ?

[Octane]

I don't view, I image. :)

H

[gregbradley]

FSQ is fairly immune to seeing conditions though. One of its great assets.

Bad seeing is something to behold at 2-3 metres focal length. On a bad night (like a lot of nights in the last week) seeing can make it seem the scope just suddenly went badly out of focus, you take another focus shot and it seems fairly in focus then badly out of focus again.

A series of exposures usually look like they are badly out of focus.

Its become clear to me why they put big scopes on mountains! Luckily there are also nights when everything is quite sharp. Just not often lately.

Greg.

[Octane]

Yep, at 3.5" per pixel, it's quite immune. :)

H

[RickS]

I just take what I can get. I'm imaging narrowband at 2760mm from Brisbane :lol:

[ianB]

Sorry my misunderstanding.

[astroron]

When the seeing is poor and the transparency is good,forget looking at Stars/Planets and give them the flick and go for Galaxies and Nebulae.
I have observed most nights for the last week or more, and I find that this to be so.
As an observer of nearly 30 years I find that you will only get about a dozen perfect nights a year if that, so be prepared for less than perfect nights and take what you can get.
You are on the coast, only 20 kms from the sea, you should not expect anything perfect.
Sorry to dampen your expectations, but if you want good "observing" conditions
You must move from your location.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[ianB]

Thanks Ron for that suggestion, yes patience is indeed a necessary requisite for this hobby.
When the Moon gets high again and stays around long enough ill take a more detailed look at it.

[astroron]

:confused2: Ian, I was suggesting objects to look at when seeing is iffy, what has the Moon to do with what you were talking about:question:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[ianB]

Just came out wrong, my mention of the moon was just a personal side point that i added, i did not mean it to come across as something you suggested.:-)

[Astro_Bot]

I was just putting the scope outside to cool as the sky was looking particularly clear earlier today and the forecast was good (still some jetstream, but better than last night). Sky looked good on one side of the house, but glancing over the other way, what do I see but smoke. Yup, a hazard reduction burn near Logan (confirmed via the QFES website) blowing smoke westward to the coast and spreading a fair bit north and south, too, at altitude - about half the visible sky affected so far and it's getting worse - spreading far and wide.

I don't doubt that hazard reduction burns are necessary sometimes, but do they have to pick one of the clearest days/nights of the year to do it? Days this clear near a city are rare! :(

[Octane]

Another awesome night last night. Boy, we are being spoilt!

I hope tonight is the same. Looking forward to trying CCD Commander out. :)

H

[kkara4]

I have been getting the scope out every night this week as well, got some great shots of the Milky Way on the wide angle too, from the suburbs!

at prime focus the moon was pretty nice (50x). 200x was a different story entirely lol. turbulence was horrendous at about 7.30pm.

Could well have been my scope only being cooled for 1.5 hours though, because 30 mins later things improved, and Saturn was looking quite nice at 400x. Still very turbulent though.

I tried using the pickering scale at 400x on a bright star, and i estimated it at near 0 lol. it is my first time trying it though and I am a massive noob with all of this.

Astro-bot the smoke wasnt noticeable at 7.30pm or so but the LP was pretty bad and brighter than normal looking towards the CBD, so maybe that was the smoke affecting things.

[pfitzgerald]

The last three nights on the Gold Coast have been clear as - and me up here without a telescope! Flying back to Melbourne tonight and the forecast is solid cloud for the rest of the week. I believe that last night was a clear one in Melbourne - the first for weeks.

Paul

[Amaranthus]

Last night was brilliant in Adelaide, and tonight looks good too, at least up until midnight. Then back to ... :cloudy:

[Astro_Bot]

It was a pretty good night out tonight (Thursday) with good seeing up until about 9pm. No sign of smoke tonight. :thumbsup:

I set up early initially for a visual session, but Saturn looked good at ~350x so I hooked up the camera and laptop and got in a few imaging runs. Hopefully, they'll turn out alright.

After that, it was back to visual and a nice tour of a few favourites.

I did notice a dramatic difference in transparency, and refraction, between low elevations and near the zenith - more than usual.

The jetstream forecast showed slower wind speed in a modestly-sized hole passing over Brissie between about 4pm and 10pm. By my estimation, that forecast was pretty accurate.

[Octane]

It was rubbish up on the Sunshine Coast. Come sunset, the cloud army arrived in full force.

It gave me a chance to try and get CCD Commander working.

Not quite there, yet!

H

[kkara4]

Hmm i didnt bother getting the scope out with all the smoke and nastiness around yesterday. all the stars were twinkling madly as well, so I knew seeing was poor where we are. I wonder if local conditions greatly affect the seeing compared to someone else only a few ks away?

anyway I hope this link might be of use to some people:

http://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/air/data/search.php?day=03&month=07&year=2014&hour=19&category_id=1&mode=measurement&goto=Previous+hour

it shows visibility and general concentrations per volume unit of air for different particle sizes (click latest hour to get the latest hour of data). Earlier in the week, visibility for CBD was 7 (you can go back in time using the date ranges), which corresponded to the great conditions everyone was seeing. And of course with all the smoke around the figures have gone quite bad, especially this morning.

Astro_bot looks like your obs were inline with an improvement in visibility come sunset though!

Where abouts are you in Brisbane?

[Astro_Bot]

I've previously discussed local conditions where I am (bayside) with other locals - we seem to have a micro-climate here with unique conditions.

It seems like the smoke blew from me to you, though I figure the excessive refraction and transparency loss at low elevation was probably from residual haze/smoke.

[ianB]

Astro bot, what weather chart do you use? I use Skippysky but would be interested to compare this to another good weather chart.

[ianB]

From around 17:30 to 19:30 the Moon Mars and Saturn will be nice and high, i hope the conditions weill be reasonble as I will set up the telescope.
With all the problems tht i have been having with the weather i am thinking about buying a solar filter for some day time solar viewing, mind you i dont know what to expect, i.e will i just see a few little black dots nd no detail at all or a little detail around the edge of a sunspot?

[Astro_Bot]

Ian,

I use the local forecasts from the BoM and Weatherzone (the 48-hour outlook is good for cloud and rain risk indication, though it can be wrong sometimes), the BoM jetstream chart (which seems to be at least as accurate if not more so than others, in my very limited experience at least) and BoM Aerological diagrams. Plus, I stick my head outside and look up. :)

The charts were suggestions of others and I apologise for nor recalling who gave me the info. :ashamed:

Jetstream Chart (http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/viewer/index.shtml?type=windbarb&level=200hPa&tz=AEDT&area=Au&model=CG&chartSubmit=Refresh+View)
Aerological Diagrams (http://www.bom.gov.au/aviation/observations/aerological-diagrams/)
Example Weatherzone 48-hour Forecast (http://www.weatherzone.com.au/qld/brisbane/pinkenba/detailed-forecast)

[ianB]

Many thanks.

[kkara4]

you can also use this:

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/250hPa/orthographic=-214.29,-27.96,1500

that link is for 250hPa. You can select various things by clicking on the earth button in the bottom left of screen, including the modelled height. Matches the BOM charts that Astro_bot linked, and you can zoom in an out too. Surface winds have always matched what my eyes see looking outside :)

[ianB]

Thank you KKara4, that looks interesting.

[ianB]

Set my scope up just after five pm, the moon looked lovely around 5:30 but now there is too much of a shimmer, likewise with Mars, just a hazy orange orb with a hint of polar cap or cloud?
My telescope is now sitting behind me and i have a glass of red wine in front of me. :-)

[kkara4]

no worries Ian, I went outside and did the same thing cept used my eyes and not the scope lol. mars was twinkling away.