Which Weather Reports?

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mikemarotta
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Which Weather Reports?

#1

Post by mikemarotta »


"I gather all the news I need on the weather report." -- Simon & Garfunkel "Only Living Boy in New York" on Bridge over Troubled Water, 1970.

Right now, I use DarkSky.net. But I also have AccuWeather, the WeatherChannel, and the Naitonal Weather Service (weather.gov) for second opinions. Today, I was told about www.ClearOutside.com, now in Rev 1.0 from First Light Optics Ltd, who also sponsor "Stargzaers Lounge." ClearOutside says: "7-day hourly cloud & weather forecasts. Designed by astronomers for astronomers."

Right now, all of my other apps call for "Partly Cloudy" tonight. The NWS even warns of isolated showers. "Clear Tonight" said to take my telescope outside and wait for dark-thirty. So, I did.

Opinions? Observations? Theories? Facts?
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#2

Post by Lady Fraktor »


Clear Outside has been around for years and is reasonably accurate.
I find it is usually more accurate for EU/ UK locations than NA locations
See Far Sticks: Antares Elita 103/1575, AOM FLT 105/1000, Bresser BV 127/1200, Nočný stopár 152/1200, Vyrobené doma 70/700, Stellarvue NHNG DX 80/552, TAL RS100/1000, Vixen SD115s/885
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#3

Post by GCoyote »


https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/ou ... ts/seeing/

I've had good results with this site. For objects showing fine detail, the jet stream can be a factor you have to consider in what you can or cannot see.
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#4

Post by Graeme1858 »


I've got Clear Outside in my signature. It's quite trustworthy but it can change at the last minute, just like the weather!

Regards

Graeme
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#5

Post by KingNothing13 »


Some combination of Clear Outside, Meteoblue, Astrospheric, and Weather.gov seems to work for me.

There are so many different forecast models that this combination seems to get a good average :lol:
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#6

Post by pakarinen »


Tough one with a lot of varying opinions...

I've found that the astro-specific sites are at best 60% accurate for my location and 60% is pushing it. Other sites like accuweather and the weather app on my phone are often just plain wrong, so I use a combination of near realtime satellite views like GOES EAST GeoColor and windy.com. I also use a couple of aviation weather apps for the airports near me - KDPA, KARR, KMDW, and KORD.

YMMV.
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#7

Post by Lowjiber »


GCoyote wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 4:24 am https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/ou ... ts/seeing/

I've had good results with this site. For objects showing fine detail, the jet stream can be a factor you have to consider in what you can or cannot see.
I too use Metroblue. Your comment about the jet stream is well taken. It can really affect solar shots.

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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#8

Post by JayTee »


I really don’t remember which weather site is in my signature, wait a second — now I remember.

I also really like Meteoblue.

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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#9

Post by Bigzmey »


Local weather forecast, then Clear Outside and then Astrospheric. Although Mother Nature still has the last word. :lol:
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#10

Post by Dragonsfire »


Astrospheric the only one and I don't rely on that, most of them are not accurate any more, more accurate to look out the window.
Been wanting to make a RasPi weather station so see the pressure changes etc.
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#11

Post by mikemarotta »


Lady Fraktor wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 3:48 am Clear Outside has been around for years and is reasonably accurate.
I find it is usually more accurate for EU/ UK locations than NA locations
Yes, going to their announcements page from Stargazers Lounge, I see that they go back to 9 June 2014, seven years now.

I read a book, Turing's Cathedral by George Dyson which was not so much about Alan Turning as a history of the development of the modern computer. "... back when 1024 bits was a very large memory array and the largest computer in the world had 40 of those, the CRT was a storage device..."
Weather forecasting goes back to those first kilobit computers. The developers and scientisits thought that they had the capacity to model the weather but only needed faster machinery because it took 24 hours to grind through a 24-hour forecast. And here we are today.

Like most of the commenters here, and as I indicated, I look at several applications. I like satellite cloud views also. And. as seems to be the consensus here, I also step outside and take a look around. When I was flying in the 1990s, I learned to guess the weather from handful of handbooks for pilots. If you don't lke the weather now, just wait: it will change.

Best Regards (and clear skies!),
Mike M.
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#12

Post by Lady Fraktor »


Meteoblue has one of the better astronomy forecasts and is pretty much all I use now besides looking out the window.
See Far Sticks: Antares Elita 103/1575, AOM FLT 105/1000, Bresser BV 127/1200, Nočný stopár 152/1200, Vyrobené doma 70/700, Stellarvue NHNG DX 80/552, TAL RS100/1000, Vixen SD115s/885
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#13

Post by goldstar »


I toss my astro-weather coin.
One face depicts a cloud, the obverse depicts a full moon....
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#14

Post by pakarinen »


Maybe I need one of those polyhedral dice like they use for Dungeons and Dragons - cloud, smoke, moon, sub-zero temps, neighbor's outdoor lights...
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#15

Post by Dragonsfire »


Magic 8 ball used to be real accurate ;)
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#16

Post by turboscrew »


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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#17

Post by Star Dad »


It's kind of funny how different the predictors can be. Right now Meteoblue is saying clouds, with more clouds tonight while ClearOutside and Clear Sky Chart are saying clear. Which to believe? I'll wait for the Noon weather update to make a decision and then a final decision upon the 6PM revision. Usually, if three out four say one thing I'll go with their prediction (which includes the US National Weather Service). Especially on a moonless night. I find MeteoBlue to be pretty accurate - more so than the others, but....
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#18

Post by pakarinen »


I've changed to using Windy and / or Ventusky for clouds and sat pics and an app called Deep Weather that gives technical forecasts ("[...] solidify the classic rex block signature [...]") including aviation weather. Takes awhile to decipher it, but I like it.
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I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do.
=============================================================================
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Re: Which Weather Reports?

#19

Post by yobbo89 »


i use meteoblue, monitoring jet streams is a must for me, especially for planetary imaging and i'll pick out nights to do my lum sets for better detail on dso targets, i can get away with average sky on colour channels .

https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/ou ... ia_2174003

another one i like is called skippy sky

https://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/
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