It’s a Go so far.
This may not be the perfect night for a Messier Marathon, but it’s better night than we could have expected 24 hours ago. The Clear Sky Clock shows tomorrow night to be even better. However that’s 24 hours away, and the forecasts have been fluctuating wildly.
I’d prefer not to look a gift night in the mouth, and go with what we got. If we decide to can it after a while, we’ll see how everybody feels about resetting to tomorrow night. There’s been clouds hanging over on the Wisconsin side of the lake all afternoon. The maps of the Clear Sky Clock show a spread of these clouds our way which hasn’t yet materialized. If you click on the cloud cover dots for each hour on the clock you’ll bring up a map showing the computer forecast cloud pattern for that hour.
Here’s the times for tonight:
Sunset: 7:49 p.m.
End of astronomical twilight: 9:29 p.m.
Start of astronomical twilight tomorrow morning: 6:14 a.m.
Sunrise: 7:52 a.m.
I expect to be at the observatory by sunset. I’m working late at Alden and will only have time for a quick supper before packing up and heading out to the observatory.
Look for another report just after 7 p.m. on the latest prognosis. As I’m composing this off-line I’m noticing that the northwestern sky near the horizon is getting milkier. It seems like the clouds are coming from that direction from what I see on all the maps.
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Tags: Events, Observing by Bob Moler
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