The Liverpool Astronomical Society

why is it when night falls the cloud comes. i,ve lost count of the number of times i,ve been excited when half an hour before dusk the skies are clear as a bell with a lovely sun set i put my lad to bed then pop out side to do some viewing and cloud, lots of cloud, question is there a cloud at dusk science thing here that i,m missing or just unlucky? the only thing visible is easy jet.

I third that - but I did nip out earlier and got a brief chance to view Orion and Pleiades through my bins.

I'm not a meteorologist but I'd suspect it may be to do with the way the land and sea re-emit the heat (what little there currently is of it!) that they absorb during the day.
I know that the sea is generally warmer than the land at night, as the land cools down quite quickly once the sunlight stops heating it whereas the sea cools more slowly.
Being near the coast is probably also a big factor. My guess is it'd be something to do with the moist air coming in from above the sea combined with the relative temperature difference 

I think you're right about the meteorology David.

This month it has taken me five evenings to get my new telescope up and running because every time I got it aligned the cloud arrived before I could look at anything.   Three or four nights ago I finally got it aligned with no cloud about, and Jupiter, which I was after, disappeared behind a tree !

I did get a decent look at the moon, though.

John Crockatt