2011 vs 2012 skies

Chris said that since getting his new good telescope recently he noticed that clear nights were few and far between. He asked if this winter was typical.

That's why they call it the February blahs, I noted. But then I dove back through the blog, reviewing the first few months of 2011. I recalled getting a lot of decent observing in.

• Jan: The City Observing Session was a go. The Evergreen Brick Work sessions met with clear skies about half the time. Mid-month we had a clear patch. I did visual observing and photography 3 nights in a row. At the end of the month, up at the CAO, I had 3 fairly clear nights in a row! At the time, it seemed to me "unusual."
• Feb: One clear night mid-month. A couple of partly clear nights on the Family Day weekend while at the CAO. That seemed typical.
• Mar: The City Observing Session ran again. On Mar 10, Bill pointed out the Clear Sky Chart where every block was solid white. Ugh. We had the big storm which cancelled our meeting. But then we had 5 clear nights in a row, centred on the Earth Hour star party! I observed, imaged, recorded, volunteered, answered questions, and observed some more! It was awesome. I remarked at the time, which each subsequent clear night, that it was remarkable.

I still reflect fondly on that time. Something exceptional happened with the weather. This winter unfortunately was back to mostly cloudy...