Longest cloudy stretch ever? Other · AstroRBA · ... · 3 · 184 · 0

Here, in southern Ontario Canada, there have been about five clear nights since early November (that's five months running now!); the skies have been otherwise completely overcast or unusable (including a few clear nights below -15 C where equipment damage might occur) with scant moments of breakthrough.

I thought that a fun survey of the frustrating sky conditions that others have faced, or are facing now, might ease some collective pain !? Vent away ! (and please feel free to mention your lack of astro darkness during far north summers too!)

I've thought about this too although I don't think I should complain too much. After I got two imaging systems ready I've gotten a lot more from this season and I find that does help.

Being far north I don't get to image during the summer months, I'm still hanging in there by a thread but now in early April we only have up to 4-5 hours a night. Soon that will become 0 hours though. During autumn I struggle a lot with fog. Especially last year where every single clear night got obstructed by fog an hour or two after darkness. That really leaves me the winter months. I've had a few good days this spring however, but they have all come around, or close to, the full moon cycle. So I have a few images with like 70-95% moon which brings its own challenges. Especially on the filterless OSC system I am running.

So far I've had about 300 odd hours from August till this day in september on my mono system, which has been running continuously throughout the season, so it's been an average season when all things are considered I think. Those hours are split into about 7 images I believe whereas four has been finished in 2024 but those from 2025 so far has had a lot more integration, so it's not as evenly distributed if we look at the hours.