Greetings All..

[ZeroID]

Newbie here to weather monitoring.
My main interest is astro-imaging so weather (and in particular clouds) are of some importance. My lovely wife bought me for a recent birthday a Tesa WS1081 PWS and have to say I'm quite impressed with its capabilities. The supplied software was a bit flaky for some reason and a search brought me here to try with Cumulus which seems much nicer and more reliable.
The station is now mounted outside on a fence post in relatively clear air by my backyard observatory, SkySlab. Bunch of telescopes, cameras, computers and stuff in there to pursue my obsession with distant objects and building clever things. I've registered my PWS with wunderground ( IAUCKLAN451 ) and looking forward to seeing it all in operation.
Weather being obviously critical in astronomy and also an Ex-boatie I've always been interested in weather patterns and trends so looking forward to enjoying another scientifically fascinating subject.

Cheers
Brent

[PaulMy]

Hi Brent, and welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you are having fun with your weather station, like so many others here. And by the way, there are other avid astronomy hobbyists here as well.

Enjoy,
Paul

[mcrossley]

Hi Brent, from someone else interested in astronomy, though the imaging has taken a bit of a back seat recently. I'm also an ex-boater, sailing way back, and a 6.3m RIB more recently.

[ZeroID]

Hi Guys, nice to 'meet' you. I've had some problems with connecting at the PC so been offline overnight. Seems the unit likes connecting to the back USB ports on the PC. These normally deliver a bit more power than the front ones. (I'm in IT so I know this stuff).
Also noticed that the pressure readings are well out of whack. The screen is showing 1012 hPa, Cumulus is showing 1015.6 which also shows at my weather site . I put in an offset (5) to correct the reading which it does at Cumulus but has no effect at either the screen or the website. Is this normal ? Just how accurate are these units. Everything else seems to be on the nose. I checked the baro pressure on Metservice and in my home wall unit at 1019 so .. ??
Is there any physical means of adjusting the unit ?

Other astronomers, that figures. We are so frustrated by the 'grey nebula' above so often. I'm trying to get a peek or even a picture of Comet 252P \Linear. Can you guess where the only solid cloud in the sky is situated ...? You got it.
I'm using a 102mm f7 ED Lunt refractor for imaging on an EQ6 Synscan and guided with the usual 80f5 and a ZWO AS120. Imaging with a Canon 1200D but I've also modded a 450D for cooling and the IR cut on the sensor. Sighting scope on the side 80f11 and all hooked up to a PC for control and imaging through BYEos. Keeps me amused at night. Observatory is a modified tin shed with sliding roof. I can be up and going within 10 minutes. lets me use the gear a lot more than setting up every night.

Haven't done any boating for years. Was mainly power stuff and Water Safety Patrol but other things got in the way and the boat was sitting around so I bludge the occasional outing with mates or go fishing off the rocks. But you learn to really watch the weather if you get serious out there.

[ZeroID]

OK, I tell a lie. It has corrected at the website as I would have expected but the screen is still incorrect. Must be some way to calibrate that ?

[mcrossley]

You need to correct it on the console, and remove the offset from Cumulus. The offset is only used as a last resort when there are 'issues' with the console.

http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#Cumulu ... et_console

[ZeroID]

I'll read the manual ...
Thanks

Edit : Ok, got it. Displaying correct Relative Pressure now
Much happier ..

Cheers

[ZeroID]

The WOW system.
I registered with WOW and got a Station ID and password.
I've entered these into the WOW settings on Cumulus but so far my station has not appeared in our local forecasting website which does use WOW as a source.
Cumulus requires Site ID and PIN to connect to WOW
I assume the Site ID is the 9 digit number and the PIN is the password ?

I've raised the PWS about a meter. It was sitting on a fence post so may have been affected by the fence structure.
Now quite clear of the fence but still handy.

I've also shifted the screen and software onto the lounge Media PC which stays on 24/7.
For some reason overnight it has dropped the rain metering, no numbers showing although they show on the PWS screen.
PC did do an update reboot last night so I had to restart it but I would think that would not affect data collection ?

An interesting exercise this has been so far ... contemplating a sky cam now, handy for cloud\clear sky notifications.
Then I just have to automate the Observatory ...... maybe not.

[Super-T]

Have you got a picture of where your outdoor sensors are located?

[ZeroID]

No, but they are on a steel pole about 3 meters in the air. Clear of most local obstructions.
We're away down south from tomorrow but I'll post a pic when we get back

[Super-T]

I was thinking more of where the transmitter is? Is it mounted on the pole as well?

Happy Easter.

[ZeroID]

Transmitter is in the weather station on the pole, receiver tablet is about 20 meters away connected to an 'always-on' PC in the lounge.
Only lost contact once when the PC did some updates.
The Observatory is just behind it in the pic

WS4953.jpg

[Super-T]

It would be better to not have the transmitter up on the pole as it will give false readings for temperature.

I put mine under the eaves of the house but that may not be practical for you.

[ZeroID]

The transmitter is built into the weather station, you don't get a remote location option.
It's all inside the wee louvred tower along with the temp and baro sensors.
Temp seems to be in tune with local conditions according to our Metservice and my good old fashioned outside thermometer.
Working great for me btw, only downtime was for a blasted MS update on the PC.