If you've been visiting LightBuckets lately, you may have noticed that the observatories in New Mexico have been unable to open at night since the beginning of July. This is due to the southwest monsoon season being underway. We had hoped that there would be at least a few nights when we'd be able to open but so far that hasn't been the case. As I discussed in this previous article, the monsoons affect the weather in New Mexico for about two months out of the year.



Many areas of southeastern Arizona/southwestern New Mexico have received two to three times the normal amounts of precipitation. The storms also tend to leave behind quite a bit of debris clouds in their wake. We have literally had cloudy nights every night going back to about July 5th. The story wasn't much better before that with clouds in the area many nights going back to mid-June. This has been a well above average monsoon season as you can see from the chart below.



There is some light at the end of the tunnel. Before we know it, September will be here and we should begin to dry out. Then we will be able to get our telescopes back into full action as the steady night skies return for the next nine months!

Now, as for our scope in Pingelly, apparently western Australia has its own cloudy season. We haven't had a clear night there for about a month. Not having a lot of experience with the weather there, we weren't sure what to expect. The locals tell us that the rain and clouds are not normal so we'll have to take their word for it.

We have been taking advantage of the rainy season to do work on new features for LightBuckets as well as getting our wide-field observatory up and running. The results of both should be visible soon. Speaking of the new wide-field observatory, don't forget to take our wide-field poll over in the forums to let us know what you think is the best telescope to put in the observatory.