Solar Observing at the ROG

In my defence, Tej, I had to wander around looking at the clouds, as you were all doing such a great job that there was little for me to do!

Anyway, operation of the Zarkov Cloud Gun is normally best performed in absolute secrecy. 😉

Seriously though, looking at the satellite pictures during the day suggested that we would be clouded out at various points. However, as soon as the cloud bank reached London, it dissipated (I can only think that the higher temperatures in London were the cause). Haven't seen that before... and every weather forecast predicted 50%+ cloud cover by around 1pm, which would have scuppered us.

Very pleased that we managed to carry on until after 3pm, even though the amount of haze over the Sun by that stage had ruined the view somewhat.

A fun day though, and great the see the new group of volunteers working so well together.

There you go I could not turn up, due to a bad back, and you had a good day. Lesson learned!!!!!!

After yesterday evening's unfortunate washout at the members solar viewing event, I'm delighted that we are going ahead with today's public solar viewing session at the ROG.

Usual place, on the terrace by the planetarium dome, next to the altazimuth pavilion. We will start slightly earlier today, as the forecast suggests increasing cloud in the afternoon. Nick and I should be there at around 10.15am to set up, starting the session at about 10.30am or so.

Hope to see some members there!

Well, we had another fun day of solar observing at the ROG today. We started earlier than normal, as the forecast suggested increasing cloud throughout the day... for once, the forecast was accurate, as we had to battle with the clouds from around 1pm onwards.

However, we still managed to get around 300 people to look through the solar telescope.

Many thanks to Christina and Clive who did a superb job helping Nick and myself to run the event.

Funniest moment of the day had to be when the clouds rolled in at 1pm and we felt a few spots of rain. I was thinking we may have to make a run for cover with the telescope, but, never fear, Clive was available with his trusty umbrella... thanks to Christina, the moment is preserved for ever more:

Thanks again to all who helped out and all who came along to view through the scopes. Great fun!

Protecting a solar telescope from the rain It has to be Britain.

Zarkov Cloud Gun

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/zarkov-cloud-gun.html#

Nice thunderstorm brewing up to the north-east of London at the moment – have a look at http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en for a real-time update!

Today, it's worth reminding folks about this cool website Mike found a couple of months ago!

That's quite a cool website! The coast of Normandy is getting hammered at the moment - poor thing!

Is this hat good for solar viewings