Sunday 7 January 2007

2006 December notes: Observing statistics

After a very good November, the weather in December was much poorer. Only ten nights were usable with several of those being near the Full Moon. Ten consecutive cloudy nights over the Christmas break was the longest cloudy period at Great Shefford since the start of 2004. 14 objects were observed off the NEO confirmation page, along with another 15 NEOs, all but a couple were observed just on single nights.

Stats for 2006 (2005) show a slight reduction in clear nights from the previous year, but an increase in the number of images taken, due mainly to the upgrading of the CCD in Sep 2005 to allow faster image download times. Images were taken on 169 (181) nights, while the number of hours spent observing was 798 (841). However, 80,515 (69,239) images were taken, with the CCD shutter being open for a total of 507 hours (438 hours) over the year.