Just goes to show...
...you should never write off an evening. Half an hour after writing my last post, I went back on the roof to check I hadn't left anything up there and discovered that the fog was thinning out. So, the telescope came back up the corridor and out onto the terrace outside the control room. With (almost) all the lights switched off, the sky really did look very good. Orion was dipping towards the horizon by this time, Saturn was high in the South and the Milky Way stretched over the Lovell telescope. After an hour or so touring the sky it was getting quite cold so Mark, that night's controller, and I went in for a mug of tea. The weather came and went a bit after that, the fog came back for long periods and was still patchy when I left at gone 5am.
After all that I still woke up at 11am this morning. I headed over to the Observatory to find the visitor centre was as busy as Saturday, so at half two I was outside doing Ask an Astronomer again! It was very cold so I was glad to get back indoors an hour later for a warm drink.
I think I'm going to have an early night tonight...
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