Hello forum :) Tricking you again with the title in Finnish but the text in English, sorry!
It has now been 40 days since I've bought my astrophotography gear and I've had only 3 chances to take it out, because of the damned clouds. One of those three turned out to be a waste of time because the clouds came eventually.
That leaves me with a little better than an average of 1 chance in 3 weeks. :realmad:
Things are going to get better when the weather gets colder, right? RIGHT? :) In the past few years I haven't paid much attention to the cloudiness levels, but I'm sure many here did.
I'm in Espoo, btw.
Thanks!
Welcome to the club :grin:
Finland is famous for its cloudyness and if I remember correct, November and December are the cloudiest of months.
Enjoy the waiting game. As einari said, fall is the cloudiest time of year around here. Things will hopefully pick up soon, when winter comes. Oh, and usually there is a long cloud penalty for buying new astronomical gear. :wink:
Seems like you are suffering from the famous cloud penalty :grin:
Really guys? It gets better than this? It's so hard to believe it right now! :)
Late autumn is usually cloudy, but january and february are the season for astrophotography people... Clouds pass away and temperature falls to -30 centigrade, meaning low-noise images with your 450D.
Make sure that you have proper dew-heating for your optics and warm clothing for yourself!
I have only a small refractor with a dew cap, do I still need dew heating? As for myself, I'll be imaging from my terrace, so I'll just need to quickly set up and then I can go inside with the laptop :)
When it gets really cold, electric dew-heating is a necessity. There are couple of ready-to-go systems available (Kendrick etc), or you can make it yourself by welding couple of small resistors together and tape them in the dew cap of your scope. It won't need much power: couple of watts will keep the dew away.
The necessity of dew heating depends more on the humidity of air than temperature. First cold nights in early fall are the worst ones.
And yeah, it gets better towards spring. In february there are normally quite long periods of clear skies which unfortunately mean temperatures below my personal tolerances for imaging.
The amount of clouds on winter seasons is easily confirmed in pay checks from star shows at the observatory. It's not unusual of not getting a single chance for a show in fall, but a couple in spring.
Indeed cloudy weather dominates our skies for much of the time in autumn as does the sunshine during summer months. It's sad to look into the facts of LA based observatories who have 90% or more clear weather during spring to autumn season (hundreds of days) when we have virtually none at all. Then we have the photographic "window" in early autumn months when the dew is everywhere like Lauri mentioned... clouds roll in from September or October until the weather turns cold enough that the moisture doesn't go up and down as rainfall and mist but rather stays in the ground as snow.
We've had some 40cm's of snow already in past few weeks in my location and there are indications that the weather might be getting cold enough for photography. Time to build our iglus and then get out with our gear :) The cold weather will be helpful for the use of dslr's which don't have the cooling, you get it provided for free in Finland.
Guys, we're not in January yet but the temperature has been often below -20 here in southern Finland, and still... only about one cloud-free day in 3 weeks!
Soon I'm going to start worrying that the night time is not going to be long enough :)
When is it gonna get better?!? :realmad:
Lainaus käyttäjältä: siovene - 29.12.2010, 15:20:29When is it gonna get better?!? :realmad:
March.
/Jake
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Never - 29.12.2010, 16:16:28
March.
/Jake
Or at least at time when nights start to be rather short again.
This hobby is as reasonable here as is making bacon with ice, but there can be that one or two perfect nights.
This week had few hours of excellent weather by visibility, however -22C was bit much for me.
Recipe for happy astrophotographing: Get to a good Spot on a cloudy night and start a fire with one hundred euro bills. You'll end up with the same results, only easier plus you won't get cold.
This ongoing winter reminds me of the winter two years back. Back then I could get my 4" Maksutov out only 3 times during the whole damn winter as it was too cloudy all the time. Well, at least it's not like that now, I could take out my CPC but I think the temperatures between -20 and -30 are a bit too cold for electronics and motors... :undecided:
Well it seems to be finally over! Many opportunities with clear skies in the last couple of weeks :)
But too bad my guide camera didn't want to work in -20 degrees...
So, as you guys predicted, February and March have been satisfactory in the number of clear nights. With winter almost over, can you guys tell me how the last winter compared with the average winter in terms of number of clear nights? Thanks!
Lainaus käyttäjältä: siovene - 16.03.2011, 13:17:44
So, as you guys predicted, February and March have been satisfactory in the number of clear nights. With winter almost over, can you guys tell me how the last winter compared with the average winter in terms of number of clear nights? Thanks!
I think that this winter is like average winter (in terms of weather overal).
ML
The anticyclones of February with (too) cold temperatures, as well as recent lengthy periods of clear and quite warm weather were much better compared to the few past winters. I even got to host three public shows in a row (one week apart) at the observatory which isn't all that common.