storm clouds

11:40 PM, Sunday 13 October 2013. Phil headed to bed. I aimed west. Millie said, "What kind of observing is this?" Exactly. Frustrating conditions.

11:44 PM. Back after the weird movie.

Big yawn. Tired. But if the skies cooperated, I wanted to try a bit more observing. I still had many items on the list. Checked the skies and considered Cetus.

Lora popped into the Warm Room. She said "Our guests are still coming. ETA: 0130." What?! I thought that crazy. Oh boy. That meant we had to receive them at 1:30 or 2:00. Not a good time to tour the facility... Had they not checked the weather conditions? We were under clouds! Millie was surprised too. I grew angry sitting there thinking about it. Lora said she was going to bed... Needed some air. I didn't know how to deal with this.

12:17 AM, Monday 14 October 2013. Tried to viewed BRT358A in Cetus. Not in TheSky. Used the star GSC 4704:271.

I had turned off the dew heater power supply earlier, when we had gone in for the movie. And then forgot to turn it back on. The 'scope was dewed up. Crikey. Stupid mistake. Should have made a reminder note.

Couldn't see any stars in the 'scope.

Couldn't think straight. This wasn't sitting right with me. Brooding, I closed up. Normally in marginal conditions like this I'd go to bed. Now I couldn't... Betwixt and between. Closed the roof and started the humidifier. Engaged the latches. Millie asked if I needed any help. Nice of her. Phil walked into the GBO. Hey, I thought he had gone to bed. He had gotten up to help me out. He also thought it was a bit of a raw deal. Lora popped in. The whole gang's here! Here to shore me up. Packed up my camera equipment. Put away all the eyepieces.

Checked the current conditions via the Davis Instruments weather station as of 12:22. The 10 minute average wind speed 3.2 km/h, out of the north-west, current was 4.8, high had been 8.0, humidity 94, barometric pressure 1025.4, temperature 8.4, dew point 7.5.

Excel was being cranky. Saved my updated observing list on the house computer, considering that I'd be taking the laptop offline. The Dell wanted to apply ten updates; I let it do that. Decided to leave my personal items in the GBO, since it was all going to the car in a few hours.

12:44 AM. Checked the skies. Clouded out again.

12:51. Headed to the house.