Posted by Gary Poyner at 14:40 on 2013 Jan 01
I had 84 useable nights/mornings 43 clear and 41 partially clear (2011 = 88). 41 of these were affected by Moonlight. For the first time I kept basic stats on how the local weather forecast did. On 23 occasions of the 84 nights the sky was cloudy when it was forecast to be clear and on 24 occasions the sky was clear when it was forecast cloud. Thats over 50% failure rate for cloud forecasting. Pitiful!My best month was January with 12 observable nights, and the worst was June when I had just two partially clear nights although better than Jeremy.I didnt manage to observe on all of the nights for a number of reasons (I missed less than 10) including the amount of talks I find myself giving to astronomy societies these days (which I enjoy immensely). A number of occasions Ive been driving home in a clear sky only to find cloud sat over Birmingham when I arrive home. The total of 84 includes nights I missed, so its a true reflection of a cloudy year.My visual totals are 7,695 variable star observations which is ~ 1,100 down on 2011, and 1,965 CCD observations obtained with BRT and aavso-net (which has an absurdly long Monsoon break).For me at least the weather patterns are deteriorating. Sky conditions continue to worsen too and thats not just light pollution. The quality of sky I have been seeing over the past few years is far inferior to even just ten years ago. Im not sure of the cause.My best year was in 1995 when I recorded 138 observable nights (records going back to 1978). You can see a few graphs etc. on my web page (url below) under "clear night stats".Anyway heres to a clearer 2013 for all of us.Gary