Most observers dormant in cold weather

And why not? Cold weather kills about 3 million people a year world-wide, about 150,000 people alone in the U.S. and 50,000 in Britain, despite them being a 1st world countries. Flu outbreaks, all of it is worse. I've observed for 3 hours in -20 deg temps sometimes, but I can't say it's a good idea. Problem is, skies are better in winter owing to less water vapour being in the air. Nighttime lasts twice as long too. Observing from a backyard is easy, but often dark-sky sites are hampered (or closed) by snow in northern or mid-western areas.

On Sun, 4 Feb 2018 11:57:01 -0800 (PST), RichA
wrote:

And why not? Cold weather kills about 3 million people a year world-wide, about 150,000 people alone in the U.S. and 50,000 in Britain, despite them being a 1st world countries. Flu outbreaks, all of it is worse. I've observed for 3 hours in -20 deg temps sometimes, but I can't say it's a good idea. Problem is, skies are better in winter owing to less water vapour being in the air. Nighttime lasts twice as long too. Observing from a backyard is easy, but often dark-sky sites are hampered (or closed) by snow in northern or mid-western areas.

Cold weather reduces the chances of getting a cold or the flu. It
looks like the annual rate of hypothermia related deaths in the U.S.
is under 1500 per year. What kind of deaths does your 150,000 number
reflect?

Here in Colorado, the transparency is often better in the winter, but
the seeing is usually worse. So when I observe depends in part on what
I'm looking at.

On Sunday, 4 February 2018 15:52:48 UTC-5, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Sun, 4 Feb 2018 11:57:01 -0800 (PST), RichA
wrote:

And why not? Cold weather kills about 3 million people a year world-wide, about 150,000 people alone in the U.S. and 50,000 in Britain, despite them being a 1st world countries. Flu outbreaks, all of it is worse. I've observed for 3 hours in -20 deg temps sometimes, but I can't say it's a good idea. Problem is, skies are better in winter owing to less water vapour being in the air. Nighttime lasts twice as long too. Observing from a backyard is easy, but often dark-sky sites are hampered (or closed) by snow in northern or mid-western areas.

Cold weather reduces the chances of getting a cold or the flu. It
looks like the annual rate of hypothermia related deaths in the U.S.
is under 1500 per year. What kind of deaths does your 150,000 number
reflect?

Here in Colorado, the transparency is often better in the winter, but
the seeing is usually worse. So when I observe depends in part on what
I'm looking at.

Diseases are always worse /spread faster in cold weather. Closely packed people indoors tends to spread them much faster. Also, people with various pre-existing illnesses do worse in cold. Check out mortality in winter for numbers. Seeing isn't as important as transparency on average unless you are looking at planets or globular clusters, but nebula stand out much better in dry air which suppresses airglow.

On Sunday, 4 February 2018 20:57:04 UTC+1, RichA wrote:
And why not? Cold weather kills about 3 million people a year world-wide, about 150,000 people alone in the U.S. and 50,000 in Britain, despite them being a 1st world countries. Flu outbreaks, all of it is worse. I've observed for 3 hours in -20 deg temps sometimes, but I can't say it's a good idea. Problem is, skies are better in winter owing to less water vapour being in the air. Nighttime lasts twice as long too. Observing from a backyard is easy, but often dark-sky sites are hampered (or closed) by snow in northern or mid-western areas.

The worst part is when the extension cable for the drives freezes into a huge coil spring across the only parking space. It stays there for over a week because it would snap like a dry twig if you tried to move it. :-)