Scattered Thoughts . . .

As expected, April's weather forecast has changed.  Unfortunately, it has not changed in the way we need.  Now, rather than there being only three clear days forecast for April, there are zero clear days in all of April!   It is not looking good for any sort of astronomy in April.   Of course, we could get extremely lucky and get a few hours of clear skies in the early afternoon of the eighth...  from 2pm to 4:30pm...  I'm not holding my breath though.

I 've been keeping an eye on the extended weather forecast since we're hoping to be able to view the solar eclipse in April.   As expected, the forecast is not looking good for any sort of astronomy around the 8th of April.  I'm not surprised in the least because this is typical for our neck of the woods at this time of year but I am a bit disappointed. Of the 30 days in April, it appears as though only three days might be suitable for astronomy...  the 13th, 15th and 16th.   The forecast is showing it will likely be -Clear- on these days but just because the skies are clear doesn't mean the skies will be steady for astronomy.  Of course astronomy is completely dependent upon a cloudless sky...  we can't magically see through clouds but astronomy is also severely affected by air currents and convection currents as well as clouds that are not in the visible spectrum.  Clouds in the infrared spectrum can also negatively impact the quality of the skies for astronomy. 

I really enjoy astronomy and viewing the night sky but, damn, I live in Waterbury.  Most of the state could be clear and sunny but if you drive down in between Stowe, Sugarbush and Bolton Resorts... down into Waterbury... we are almost always covered in clouds and, usually, there is some sort of precipitation falling from those clouds. This description of Waterbury reminds me of Harry Connick Jr's "Bluesville" in The Happy Elf.  The clear skies are rather brief. I honestly don't think that Seattle has anything on Waterbury as far as overcast and wet days go.  I've lived here for about 23 years now and my first few years made it obvious that Waterbury was aptly named 'Water'bury for a reason. I keep saying that I'm going to track and record climate conditions daily in Waterbury for a solid year just to see how it differs from the rest of Vermont and, especially, how it compares to Seattle. Naturally, I haven't done it yet. Perhaps I've been

Our new weather station. We've had a weather station here in the house ever since I've lived here. Actually, when I moved in with Sheila, I brought my weather station at the time with me to Sheila's house.  Every few years, better weather stations at more affordable prices are manufactured so we've upgrade to newer models every five years or so. The weather station we've had for the past four or five years was okay but it was difficult to read in our hallway. We have a small area in our hallway just outside our kitchen where we have the house controls... our thermostat, our telephone/intercom base unit (yes, we still have a landline-based VOIP telephone system... two line... two remote handsets... because cell service is spotty, almost non-existent in our neck of the woods not to mention obscenely expensive) ... the weather station...  and this area is adjacent to our half bath and laundry room. It is just a nice common area of the house in close proximity