beginners problems-help!

For myself in Kerry I would say this winter has been abnormal. Last winter was good though I have moved 15 miles further west along the Iveragh Peninsula. Kerry is full of micro-climates and people where I used to live get clear skies when I am suffering from sea mist.

The summer is always good here though you have to stay up longer for a dark sky.

I suppose you could try radio astronomy but looking at oscilloscopes must be very boring.

Hi Looney,
Love the name,
I'm in Limerick and I have found that the weather this winter has been a bit warm, so far this winter we havent had a real hard frost yet !, atleast not here, no morning where I woke up to see a coating a white on the grass.....
Over the years I've often found there a spells of a few months where there are hardly any skies, and then you might get a number of good months, it seems to be random, for instance after the transit of venus across the sun last year, there wasn't alot of observing for a few months, we had a few good skies in September and from October to mid December it was bad. ?!?

Horizon was on BBC2 last night regarding global warming and global dimming, basically what it comes down to is that we're all screwed. :roll:
Better buy a house in southern Spain or somewhere in northern Norway, depending on which theory you think is right.

The BBC are so sensationalist these days. I read a news story on my news aggregator from the BBC and it says that the sun is dimmer now. I'm thinking that scientists have discovered less neutrinos or we are heading to an early red giant. But no, what they are really saying, in the last paragraph, is that global warming created the green house effect, which in turn creates more cloud cover and so global dimming. Two sides of the same coin. Warming and dimming are the product of the same problem.

Personally, I think it's all nonsense. 100 years of meteorlogical data does not make a global warming theory. It's all statistical variance. There are just as many scientists saying that we are heading towards an ice age and that Kerry will be under a mile of ice as soon as the gulf stream stops.

Just like opposing sentiment in a betting market. You don't know the outcome until it's over.

Personally, I think it's all nonsense. 100 years of meteorlogical data does not make a global warming theory. It's all statistical variance. There are just as many scientists saying that we are heading towards an ice age and that Kerry will be under a mile of ice as soon as the gulf stream stops.

James, just ot correct you here, those people who say we are heading for an ice age ARE belivers in Global Warming, the theory (and it is one I belive) is that global warming will cuase the ice caps to begin to melt, this will dramatically change the salinity at a very crucial point in the sea, the point where the north atlantic drift cools down and sinks to start its return to the Caribean at the bottom of the atlantic. That sinking is a very fine balance and the change in salinity will mess with the density of the water at this critical point, stop the sinking and in effect, turn off the north atlantic drift and plunge us into the next ice age. Its still all triggered by Global warming and it is real and it is happening. The millions of tons of CO2 we are pumping into the atmosphere has to be having an effect!

Bart.