Rumours

[JohnH]

It is rumoured that above the solid clouds the night sky is sprinkled with small, bright points of light called "stars". From my own recent observation (or lack thereof) I am inclined to disbelieve this.

Mournfully,

John

[Carole]

I saw a few last night, but they are very elusive. 

Carole

[Rick]

My meteor camera sometimes sees through the gaps. 31 meteors (and over 400 detections of fast moving moon-lit clouds, bats, birds or moths) last night, and nine the night before, but the night before that was a complete wipe-out...

[JohnH]

No, it's all a conspiracy and you are obviously crisis actors!

I had my kit out on Friday (relying on weather forecasts) and all I got was the Moon and a glimpse of Jupiter.

John

 

[Carole]

Oh dear John. Yes weather forecasts are notoriously unreliable.  One advantage if having a permanent set up is you don't have to set up every time. Annoying if you have set up specially and then the forecast is wrong.

I have 4 weather apps and also use Sat24 so l can see what is on the way.  If two out of the four are saying the same thing then l can usually trust the forecast to be reasonably accurate.

Carole 

[Rick]

I check "Clear Outside" (https://clearoutside.com/forecast/51.69/-2.36 <- pick your own location) to get some idea how the nights will be, but it's never much more than a rough guide...

[Carole]

I use, yr.no. Clear Outside, BBC weather and Met Office

[Rick]

I also run my own weather system, and that fetches a little recent rainfall radar data (amongst other things). However, that doesn't really say how cloudy it's likely to be. My meteor camera does analysis overnight (by counting the stars it sees in each analysis fame and comparing that with the number it thinks it might be able to see if the sky's clear), and gives me an idea of just how cloudy the night was, but the camera's also pretty good at taking advantage of gaps in the clouds. If it can see twenty or more stars then it has a look for meteors...

[Rick]

Despite the pervasive fog that's been blanketing us over here for the last few days, my meteor camera has been catching gaps in the cloud some of the time. It caught 74 meteors on Sunday night and 44 on Monday night, both of which were reasonably clear nights. On Tuesday night, which wasn't at all clear, it still managed to catch 5 meteors. Wednesday night was reasonably clear some of the time, and it caught 26 meteors. Last night, however, was not so good. It never saw enough stars to make it even think about looking for meteors....

[Carole]

Looks like you might have the only image in the December Members images then.  Lol

Carole 

[Rick]

It's snowing over this side of the country. Not much, but onto frosty ground, so it will settle, and probably stay for a few days...

[Rick]

Three days of solid cloud (with added fog or snow at times) so far. Missing the Geminid meteor peak, sadly. Other parts of the country are doing better, though.

[Carole]

We've got snow and sub zero temperatures but clear skies, but too freezing to want to go outside.

Carole

[Rick]

Clear skies last night. Well below zero. Left the meteor camera to its own devices. It caught quite a few...

[Rick]

Looks like we're back to normal, now. Solid cloud last night, all night long. Grey, overcast, and intermittently wet this morning. Not, however, quite so freezing cold...