Sunday I woke at 5.00am and having looked outside I noticed it was clear, so I decided to avoid the temptation to get more sleep and wait up for Jupiter to rise. By 6.30am the sky had clouded over :o(

Today, at 4.30pm the sky was perfect, but I had work to do, I thought I'd be OK for a couple of hours and anyway Saturn would be a while to rise. By 8.30pm when I had finished working, guess what? More clouds!

I have to get up early in the morning to catch a train at 7.00am so will soon be off to bed as it will be a long day.

later
Mitch

Clouds,

Sitting here at just after 5.00pm on a Friday evening and more clouds, we've had some bad weather across the UK this week culminating in some gales on Wednesday and Thursday. On my way home yesterday I had to go through some flooding and past a large uprooted tree that thankfully had just missed the house next to it and the road!

So no chances for getting the scope out, but this morning it was clear as I left for work at 7.00am and Jupiter looked very grand to the south. If it's clear tomorrow I might get up early and get the Skywatcher out for it's first encounter with an old friend of mine!

Bought the September issue of the Sky at Night magazine this morning, so after reading that Neptune and Uranus are on view this month I decided to see what I could see.

So just as twighlight fell I was outside to take a look.

Got my first view in a while of Jupiter as it sank in the west, due to the low altitude I didn't see much other than the main moons.

The moon was bright to my south, which is where I was looking for the aforementioned planets, thanks to the moon and scattered cloud tonight's mission was not accomplished, my southern horizon is not good at the best of times. But I have a few weeks yet to see them, these will be a first for me, never saw them as a child like I did with Jupiter and Saturn, they are like old friends to me now!

Anyway, did get to see Lyra and Cygnus again along with Cassiopeia and of course Ursa Major. Albireo was a nice sight as always and the monocular gave a nice view of the doubles in Lyra but not of course the double double.

Earlier in the week I decided to upgrade the Meade ETX80 with something a tad more serious. This time I am refusing to be seduced by GOTO features and concentrate on aperture and a serious mount. After some advice I've decided to go for a Skywatcher 200mm Newt on a heavyduty motorised mount. At a price of £539 this looks like a bargain after I paid £300 for the Meade.

I was almost in the car on a 65 mile trip to the shop to buy this yesterday when I decided to check availability, that turned out to be a good call, the mount is out of stock until the end of the week. So hopefully this time next week I'll be the proud owner of a new scope. I will try to sell the Meade on eBay as I don't have the space to keep it as well as the new kit.

Just managed to spend 20 minutes outside while it's getting dark, Jupiter is still to the south with the Gallilean moons strung out in a line with one to the SW and the rest in a nice line to the NE. Cloud belts only just visible due to lotsof high cloud.

Albireo shoul be visible to my east but obscured by cloud.

The plough is directly overhead and that's about it for now, will try later.

Very frustrating at the moment, but, I'm so busy with other stuff that the lack of observing opportunities is a blessing in disguise!

I'd forgotten that Astronomy is a difficult hobby in the spring/summer months if you have to get up for work in the mornings. So have had very little chance to see much, however, Jupiter is sitting right in view of my front door due south after 9.00pm BST. Just had a quick peek with the Opticron, 3 moons to the south west and 1 to the north east very close to the planets body. Haven't had time to look up which is which.

Rest of the sky is currently cloudy so not looking promising tonight.

So, rather than snatching an hour after work in December if it's a clear sky, I'm faced with trying to plan a late night vigil just to see if the sky is clear!

cheers
Mitch

Well, this astronomy thing is full of opposites, right now at 22.20hrs BST the sky is just darkening and Jupiter is nicely visible, if a tad blurred by its low angle in the sky.

It's also quite warm compared to a similar observing situation back in December, but of course I have to get up for work in the morning. It seems that those who make the most of the warm weather for observing must be either unemployed or retired :o(

Just had my first clear view of the night sky in ages, stepped out of my front door and directly in front of me to my south is Jupiter. The opticron quickly showed the 4 main moons and could just make out 2 cloud belts.

Hopefully more later, but work in the morning.....