Observing statistics for 2022.
Gary Poyner (Birmingham)
A record year – the most observing nights from my location in Kingstanding, Birmingham since I began to record weather data in 1978. Admittedley most of the observing opportunities were with broken cloud, or mere breaks in cloud, but a record is a record.
The year seems evenly split for clear skies before and after the Solstice. Clear skies from dusk to dawn were rare with just 14 during the year, but slightly better than 2021 which recorded 11. Most of these were in the shorter Summer months.
2022 (2021 in parentheses)
Clear nights (less than 50% cloud) 41 (19)
Partially clear nights (50% or more cloud) 103 (100)
Totally cloudy nights 221.
Total observable nights 144 (119) with 74 (82) of these nights having Moonlight interference. I made observations
on 139 nights.
Total hours at the telescope 303.67h (227.7h)
Best month August with 17 nights, 9 clear and 8 partially clear (April – 16)
Worst month November with 8 partially clear nights and 0 clear (December -3)
Birmingham Met office gave incorrect information on cloud cover for 77 nights during 2022 (73). They remain consistantly dire.
Total visual VS observations for 2022 is 12,005 (8,201), an increase of 3,804 on 2022. CCD single measures using remote telescopes COAST, SLOOH and the AAVSO SRO-50 and MPO-61 are 2,996 (3,527), a decrease of 531 on 2021 – mainly due to a long Monsoon in the SW of the USA and prolongued down-time with COAST.
