Never take a break
Last night saw the first really nice clear night I've had in quite a while. I set up pretty early (this getting dark earlier business is so nice) and, because Mars wasn't up over the roofs of the houses to the East of me yet, I decided to spend a little bit of time with chair and binocular. This would also give the 'scope plenty of time to cool down too.
I finished sweeping around with the binocular as Mars got to a reasonable height. At this time I noticed that some cloud was creeping in from the West. Thinking this was just a passing bit of cloud I decided to have a little break, let Mars get a little higher, and let the cloud pass.
There's my lesson for the night: Do not, ever, decide to take a break when you see cloud approaching. It wasn't a passing bit of cloud — the sky totally clouded over and that was it for the rest of the night.
Well, I say "for the rest of the night". Of course, I woke up this morning to glorious sunshine. What's the betting that the cloud cleared just after I headed off to bed?
File Under: Mars, Cloud.
2 comments:
On this side of the Pennines we get the same thing; it will totally cloud over but then be completely clear upon waking in the morning.
Typical British weather! ;-)
Indeed, typical British weather. I guess you've got to be a bit nuts to be into observational astronomy and live in the UK.
I should probably take up amateur meteorology as a back-up interest. ;)
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