As we all know, now is not the best time for stargazing. I have just been out for an hour trying my little 102 Skywatcher Mak out on Saturn and Mars. Enjoyable as ever and the 102 certainly punches above its weight on planetary visual. It is comparable to my Evostar 120 and certainly much more manageable. My Celestron Omni 12mm suits it well giving 108x magnification and lovely crisp views of Saturn with 3 moons visible. After an hour of midge attacks I called it a night, and probably will leave the visual for a few months now just keeping the binoculars close to hand. I am also considering having a clear out of all my astronomy gear and putting the money towards some summer projects. Funds are tight so one needs to finance the other and good secondhand gear is always readily available. I see myself returning to visual observing in late September with plans for a decent sized dob.

Recently I have been geeting back into my photography, experimenting lots with time-lapse. This will be my next 'mission' and I am hoping to do plenty over the coming months with the moon , planets and some wide field as my subjects. I have stocked up on Cosmology books, and hope to plough through a few whilst on a summer camping holiday.

I would sign off with the normal 'clear skies' but perhaps 'dark skies' is more appropriate at the moment.

Paul