How do you guys do it?

I have experienced astro-droughts like you describe in Indiana USA. This winter was terrible. It is worse than when I started 4 years ago. in 2020 I was shooting the sky 2 times a week. Lately, 2 times month, if I'm lucky. The northern wildfires made it even worse, adding haze to otherwise clear nights.

Finally, beginning this early Spring, there were more breaks and I got out just enough to curb my disappointments.

The lesson I learned is that rain and overcast weather fluctuates on a curve that is slow and tests our patience. I hope for you that it begins to clear more often and you get clear skies.

I'm in nearby Denmark, so I have roughly the same weather as you. This past winter has been the worst in my time as an amateur astronomer. The number of useful astrophotography nights can be counted on one hand and you'd even have a few fingers left. One advice I can give is to pick up alternative astronomy interests. I'm doing spectroscopy, which doesn't have quite the same strict requirements for fully clear nights. Slitless spectroscopy can be done with essentially the same equipment you already have plus a cheap grating in a filter cell. Photometry (visual or EA) is another fun option that also doesn't require huge investments and can be done with less than perfect skies.

Just a suggestion. It might not be for you. 

Thanks guys. I suspected we had a bad winter (locally) but I didn’t realize it was the same for everyone! The El Niño explanation seems plausible. 

Maybe it’s best to pursue other interests for a while and see how this summer develops.

It's crappy here in Southern Ontario, Canada too - an occasional burst of clear nights but not necessarily when convenient. And last season was eroded further by wildfire smoke.

However, there is another way to consider things; many activities that people love to participate in require moderate to distant travel; - boating, skiing, hiking, camping, climbing, etc. We sometimes forget how lucky we are to be able to do this from our backyard, as infrequent as those times may be.

If possible, traveling to a better site might ease some of the pain? Of course the ultimate is to set up a remote site, but costs are not favorable to all.

I say stick with it and relish the good nights when they do come!

Hi folks,

same in the middle/ west of germany.
I tried remote AF and even in Namibia the weather was not as good as expected………….. :-(

CS :-)

Frank

I'm 58 year old. Been in the hobby since the 4th grade. 

Endure!

CS 

I live under the Jet Stream… even clear nights the stars are terrible.

It can be tough. Things like clouds, wildfires, and life circumstances get it the way. The way I look at it is that astrophotography is a special experience when it happens. It's like that great friend you see only few times a year.  It certainly helps to have other hobbies to fill the time, and for me it's wildlife photography.  With wildlife photography I still get to use a camera and keep my Photoshop skills sharp.


It's certainly frustrating to partially complete projects. My advice for taking advantage of limited time is:

Mono Color: get 20 mins on each color, and then do luminance for the rest of the time.

Mono Narrowband: some targets are stronger in some signals than others. If you can, do some research and dedicate the appropriate amount of time for each signal dependent upon the target. 

OSC RGB/Narrowband: process what you have and enjoy it.

Something to consider. Recently I did a collaborative effort on a target. 1 percent of a 100 people vs 100 percent of 1 person might be the path…

CS

Tim

I had 2 fully clear nights in the 2023-2024 season (since august 2023), and 15 partials, so a total of 17 imaging nights. I am imaging from Finland, so it is cloudy almost all of the time and when its not we have bright summer nights.

If you intend to keep doing this hobby, then i would say you absolutely must take all of those partial clear nights if the goal is to get a decent integration time, even if you only get a couple of hours. My most recent image (and the last image until summer ends) took a year to complete at 25 hours of integration. Last spring gave me 8h, this year gave 17. Getting comfortable with spending more than a year per target is a decent idea in my opinion…

Same, same - southern Germany. Very frustrating and I was looking at Remote as well. I had the possibility to go remote (shared), however, I am not there yet. I like to be in contact with my equipment and still like to be a bit hands-on. For me "making the effort" of setting up etc. is still part of the hobby. I am a bit worried losing the interest  just sitting hundreds km away, operate remotely and getting (most likely much better) data by just pressing few bottoms. I see it as an inspiring challenge to get the images from the area/climate (limited imaging time, bad seeing etc.) I am living in. Most likely, I will not discover new DSOs or win a price with my images, but I still get the joy out of the hobby once the system is running and sending me the first pics through with the equipment I have. 
CS Rob

I live in the suburban Midwest US.  If it isn't cloudy skies, it is smoke from wildfires. You take what the skies give you. Back when I first started out, I was doing 2-3 hour images, which you typically can get enough of a window of opportunity to do. Anything meaningful (20 - 40 hours) can take months or even a season unless you are lucky. One image last year took three months (May-July); another could not be completed in three months (Jan-March) and had to be completed the next season (November). Having a semi permanent covered set up helps as others have stated, to take advantage of whatever opportunities you do get. Some of my friends have build observatories, but I am not convinced that is a good investment in a place with such lack of clear weather. The best solution is to go remote, but even that will require a time commitment to travel for upkeep. All of this has to be balanced with work and family commitments. This is a great hobby if you are well off, retired and healthy, or are one of the fortunate few to live in a place with abundant dark and clear skies; but if you have a family and are working, then you have to temper your expectations and find other pursuits to balance. One person I know actually chose their retirement home in a part of the country where they could get clear and dark skies - but such places usually come with other compromises, like lack of basic amenities that many of us take for granted.

I'm in the north west part of the UK which is the worst for imaging. As many have said go for a permanent setup. I roll back the shed and turn everything on and I'm go. Also take shorter runs on brighter objects, can give you a lot of satisfaction without producing the perfect image. I'd agree with @Johannes D. Clausen spectroscopy is great for short exposures, can do several objects in an hour, all in all don't give up!