CloudWatcher K-factor optimisation tool
The CloudWatcher‘s K-factors are at the core of its reliability when it comes to measuring sky temperature and cloudiness, and make the job of their owners a lot easier. However, getting the right K-factors set up is quite the arduous process, and many of us choose to change the safety limits a couple of times a year instead. This yields similarly reliable results, but requires more work in the long run.
But what if I told you setting the K-factors doesn’t need to be ardous at all anymore? Committed CloudWatcher owner Joerg Klaas has developed a CloudWatcher K-factor optimisation tool, which calculates K-factor settings for your specific conditions.
In his own words:
It’s a tiny tool that finds and optimizes the perfect K-factor settings (IMHO) by simulation of different scenarios and temperature ranges and also includes humidity climate issues.
The tool simulates around 6 Million calculations and finds the sweet spot automatically. Also it shows you visually diagrams and result changes if you change factors.
It’s just a matter of seconds and looks pretty perfect to me so far. Nearly no need for further customizations throughout the year anymore.
You can find the tool here: https://lunaticoastro.com/aagcw/cloudwatcher_optimizer.html.
Curious for more background information? Check the repository here: https://github.com/joergs-git/cloudwatcher-optimizer.
We’re extremely grateful to Joerg for having put in the effort to develop this optimiser, and for sharing it with the Lunaticoastro community for other users to benefit from it!
Why don’t you give it a try and share your experience in the tool’s forum thread?