Hot Hot Hot... weather weather weather

My Telescope in HDR, originally uploaded by MPR Photography (Matthew2000tx).

If you don't know central Texas has been very dry this summer and San Antonio gets it's water from the Edwards Aquifer which has gotten very low this summer so we are at Stage 3 water restrictions. It has been unseasonably hot lately and today's high is expected to be 105 degrees; a temperature we usually don't see until the first part of August.

Why all the weather talk?? Well hot dry conditions are generally great for astronomy. I have gotten in some good viewing in lately because of the lack of humidity in the air allows the day time clouds to dissipate after sunset.

This week things have begun to moisten up a bit with rain the past two days. This is mostly due to the usual afternoon thunderstorms. Although we are in dire need of the rain, as is evident with the hue my lawn is showing, I have found it too humid in the evening to get the telescope out.

This week I have my parents in town from San Angelo, Texas and today is Wednesday which means it is the day of the week that the San Antonio Astronomical Association does it's weekly star party at McAllister Park near the San Antonio International airport. I would like to take my little Celestron First Scope out of a spin at the park and introduce my parents to the other astronomers that I talk about often. I see from the weather widget that the day's high is forecast as 105 and partly cloudy, so we might be able to make it to the park. All we need to hope for is that we don't have another one of those much needed rain clouds.... at least not today.