Well, last night turned out to be a nice little outing with the scope. I was hoping to see Asteroid 2012 DA14 but this, as for many people, was not to be. However, I did get to see a few of the objects that I've looked at on my last 3 outings.

The Moon - Only my second go at The Moon and even more successful than my first attempt. The disk was a little more illuminated than it was the previous time and also a little higher in the sky. The terminator displayed some dramatic chiaroscuro, with the craters appearing beautifully three dimensional. I managed to view at 60x 150x and 300x magnification. The most satisfactory results were with the 10mm eyepiece (150x mag.). The poor quality of the Barlow really showed up at the higher magnifications, although I did manage to achieve acceptable focus. I really must take a copy of the Lunar 100 out with me next time, this will give me something to do rather than just scanning the surface.

Jupiter - Pretty much the same as last time I viewed. Managed to make out the bands clearly with the 10mm eyepiece. When pushed to 300x with the Barlow, the view softened somewhat, but I was able to make out a small back dot which I assume was the shadow of one of its moons.

M42 - I still can't seem to resolve much more than the core on this one. I didn't think my skies were massively light polluted (they're certainly not of rural quality though) but what I did mange to do was make out the trapezium very clearly and it was one of those real Aha! moments, when you go from a slight uncertainty as to whether you're looking at the right things to thinking "How on Earth did I miss that?!".

M45 - This is a binocular one for me. Really beautiful, if a little unsteady in my novice grip.

Other than that, I'm continuing to add to the number of constellations I can name without the help of a sky chart. I've got Orion, Gemini, Cassiopeia, Auriga (which I can always spot because of the "rocketship" blasting off from it), Ursa Major and Leo. I've almost worked out Perseus (at least I know where it is), Taurus always seems too faint for me to pick it out, as does Ursa Minor. I'll keep looking and figuring them out. The recognition of the night sky is a really lovely feeling.

I think going forward, I need to start planning ahead a little more and setting myself some goals. It's nice getting more and more familiar with the same objects, but equally it would be nice to extend my range a little.

All in all an enjoyable couple of hours out and fingers crossed for some more clear skies tonight.

James