2020 OBSERVING TOTALS

Forums General Discussion 2020 – how was it for you? 2020 OBSERVING TOTALS

#583632
Denis Buczynski
Participant

Hello all, My main observing programme is astometry and monitoring of comets. The year is divided into 3 parts for me here in Tarbatness Highland Scotland at 59d N latitude. The fisrt is the months from Jan-May when observing is possible ina dark sky. The second is frOm mid May-mid August when no observing is possible due to all night bright twilight, Then third from mid August-December when observing is possible in a dark sky. During the second period of the year only observations of NLC are possible. Vitually no observations were made of the bright naked eye comet C/2020F3 NEOWISE in June/July due to the twlight conditions. Contrary to other parts of the UK which saw good spring and summer conditions that allowed pleasant observing, here in Highland Scotland the weather was fairly grey, overcast and cool. However I was able to observe on 106 nights when comet imaging took place and I included 87 reports of photometry of comet 29p a target for the 29P MISSION progamme run by Richard Miles for the BAA Comet Section. My two meteor cameras were operating through the year apart form the summer shutdown months and around 2000 meteors were captured on each camera and reported to NEMOTODE. The year was comparable to previous years for observing.