Bad weather over there too, Shuttle postponed

Monday, August 08, 2005, 11:16:10 LT

Skies are still overcast here, but we are not the only
ones. The landing of Shuttle Discovery has just been
postponed by 24 hours because of bad weather at Kennedy
Space Center. And the Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak
has been closed for almost a month now because of
continuous instable weather.

I guess it's back to the NEAT archives then...

Coupled back the "comet" of yesterday to Rob Matson. He
thinks it's a bad orbital solution on a main belter.

Rainy day, Dream away....

Monday, August 08, 2005, 01:15:15 LT

Rain rain rain and a completely overcast sky now, so
I am going to call it a day (after all it is 1 hour
after midnight already...).

Spent the afternoon and evening searching for TNO's and
main belt asteroids in the NEAT image archives. Sent in
one set of astrometry on a probable new main belter to the
MPC. Also got a set of astrometry on two consecutive
nights only on another object, that result in a cometary
orbit. Alas two night is not enough to send it in to the MPC...

That's all for today, I am going to sleep.

Hunting TNO's...

Sunday, August 07, 2005, 15:30:54 LT

This ability to post through e-mail is cool....

Weather is still weird here. Rain showers the one moment,
bright clearings the other moment....

I do not give tonight much chances. Instead, I am hunting
TNO's in the NEAT archives today......

Clouds again

Saturday, August 06, 2005, 23:40:10 LT

The atmosphere is very dynamic again. Mostly cloudy during the daytime, seriously clearing just before sunset, but thin middle altitude cloud cover again when the sky had become dark enough for photography. Tried to catch USA 129 but failed due to the cloud cover.

Currently the thin middle altitude clouds seem to be gone again, but low altitude cumuli abound. I am going to give it one last try in about 10 minutes from now and if that fails I am going to call it a day.

For the visual element: here's a picture of Lacrosse 5 obtained a few days ago:



(for a larger image click here).

Lacrosse 5 is a radar spy satellite operated by the US NRO.

Dutch weather sucks! (05-06 Aug 2005 run)

It rained all day on the 5th, but the sky rather unexpectedly cleared in the evening.

When I returned from an evening with friends at about 00:30 am local time, I had some hopes I might be able to do some imagery. Back home on the lap-top I found out that I already had missed a good pass of IGS 1A, but might be able to catch Lacrosse 2 and one of the NOSS rockets later on in the night. So I set the alarm clock.

When I woke up at 3 am, the sky conditions were very dynamic. It changed from completely clear to overcast and back again in a matter of minutes. It was clear imaging would become a gamble.

I lost the gamble: cloud fields passing by just at the moments the satellites made their passes...

Weather prospects for the week to come do not look good. Dutch Weather realy sucks.....