I went out with the 8SE with the intention of seeing the open clusters near Orion, namely M35, M37, M38, but I felt hampered by the half-full Moon from the start.

I found M35 easy enough, though it was only just visible in the 9x50 finder scope with averted vision. It seemed a little unspectacular, probably due to the light from the Moon, indeed after my eyes had adjusted I hardly needed a torch to see what I was doing.

I tried moving on to M37 but for the life of me I just could not locate it in the finder scope, I found it in my binoculars but that's as far as I got with it.

I started having fun with the SynTrek handset too, when I say 'fun' I mean 'didn't have a clue what I was doing'! At one point after a particular key combination the mount started twisting and turning as if it was a Goto, lord only knows where it was going, after almost doing 180 on both axis I switched it off and on at the main switch (the usual IT trick!) The instructions for the handset couldn't be murkier, probably a poor translation.

I decided that if the Moon didn't want me to find those open clusters then I was going to get a good bit of crater-watching in, as it turns out this became the highlight of the night as I saw some marvellous mountain ranges (later looked these up to be the ridges between Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis), I went for the full 10mm which was very enjoyable even with the wibbly wobbly heat waves coming off the neighbour's house.

The temperature started to drop noticeably and a dew began to form, although it was only just past 10pm I'd had enough so called it a night.

So I live to observe another day, fingers crossed for clear skies on the next new moon!