Posted by M C Butcher at 13:32 on 2013 Jan 01
Jeremy,Living off the west coast of Scotland we generally get less nights that are suitable for observing than in many other parts of the country with the most common problems being cloud cover and wind. Because the winds here can be quite severe I do not have an observatory and therefore have to set up my telescope afresh each night. In 2012, after setting up (polar alignment etc), I was able to image(I use a DSLR) or observe on 27 occasions for a total of 86.65 hours. Fortunately I am retired and so if it is clear I am able to stay out all night to maximise the opportunities presented. On 11 occasions I was able to observe for 3 hours or more including one night in December for 13.5 hours.Historically these figures for 2012 are down on the norm (about 100 hours per year) but they are at least up on 2011 when I achieved only 7 nights observing for a total of 9.77 hours with the longest session being only 2.75 hours. One learns to be grateful for any opportunity that one gets!Hoping that these statistics might be of some interest.Martin Butcher