Bad weather an poor seeing kept me out of the observatory tonight

I was hoping the viewing conditions would improve. Clouds threatened to obstruct viewing and I got out from home and went out to eat later in the evening. I actually list track of the sky and looking up the weather when a Faac member called me. Sean asked if I was heading out? I took a look out of the pizza parlor where I ate and saw the sky looked clear but this with a lot of lights. It can look clear but have haze. I called Tim and Jennifer as well a couple of other club members Abd called Greg Ozimek as well. I also called George Korody who was imaging and he's out to the easy of Lincoln Park, so his conditions may move in toward us. He said seeing was hazy and poor. He was imaging but it was less than what hrs want to brave the cold. I had preloaded some equipment in the car but removed my telescope. I needed to make some soup for my mother who was feeling I'll and has been eating up all the homemade soup. This took longer than I expected as I was missing some ingredients.

Finally while talking to George he mentioned radar showing clouds moving into Wayne county. That was enough to keep me from continuing. Consider that snow might still be on the shutter from earlier and it's bitter out. It's one thing to go out in the cold when the viewing is excellent. It's much more difficult to go out when the conditions are marginal, cold and getting worse.

To verify u made the right decision I quickly grabbed my little f4 four inch reflector and put an eyepiece out and walked outside to look at the Orion nebula. The conditions were far from ideal, and haze was present an affecting view in the 30 degree area above the horizon.

It was to cold and viewing was to marginal to open up tonight. I sent out a text message to Tim, Jennifer and Sean that I wouldn't be opening up the observatory tonight.

In other news a recent frequent observer Art in the club sent me a message to say hi to everyone in the club. He recently went in for some tests and possible surgery and things are not bad. I have to verify his message but it seems that he had a minor thing and nothing to worry about.

I could go on and report about health reports I've heard recently from my relatives and the various club members, but this is a blog that should be mostly about observing. The winter can be a tough time, cold and harder long nights. Keep warm and take care if yourselves out there. The sky will be clear in future days so there's no point in pushing things.

I've heard that the long term forecast is for bitter weather. I doubt well open up at night with the very bitter weather we've been having. We have a heater but when it gets very cold the few who show up end up sitting around the heater and surviving a bit keeping warm Abd chatting without much observing. We had a very last moment cold observing session a fee days back and the conditions were very good for astronomy viewing but we were so cold we only looked at a few objects. We were to cold and it was to late to even think much about what we should be looking at. Sean and I made it out that night.

In the future we nay have a better way to deal with the cold and observe with the dome operating while visitors are in some warm nearby location. This would involve a few modifications and we are working on a wish kist of items to enhance the observatory and increase our options.

Greg

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