Despite a global pandemic and recession over the last few years, Scope Nights still survives and the Milky Way is still spinning.  Unfortunately app development was affected by the pandemic and my eyes and lungs took a battering… I’ve lost count of the times we’ve all caught Covid, with the latest variant taking 4 months to clear up.  As if that wasn’t enough, the pandemic and other global events led to an ongoing recession here in the UK, and Apple and Microsoft exacerbated problems by forcing me to upgrade my computer hardware and programming environment in order to keep on developing.  Nevertheless I’m back coding and trying to integrate more reliable weather API’s into Scope Nights.  The aim is to fix the global forecasts and include more detailed and accurate stargazing forecasts in the next quarter.  These changes should make Scope Nights more robust and reliable in future.

With things sort of returning to normal we managed to visit the renowned dark skies of the Elan Valley in Wales, and wow was it dark!  Stopping off on the way home from a summer camping trip for a few nights to try and get some stargazing in, the whole time it was the usual wet and cloudy British weather. Luckily it cleared for about an hour and I managed to catch the Milky Way rising above one of the many lakes in the Elan Valley.  Our visit also coincided with the Perseid meteor shower and the photo shows a few small Persied meteor trails.  Shame the large meteor we spotted right over our heads didn’t cross the lens as it was one of the largest fireballs I’ve ever seen with an amazing green glow… definitely need a wider lens next time!

Clear skies for 2024 ✨
Martin