Drove home with the hope of a clear sunset to see PANSTARRS but a blizzard soon put paid to that.....

However, a beautiful clear evening developed and I got set for an hour and a half from 9pm. I had struggled to star hop last time out but had read an excellent article by EntropyStar showing how to use Stellarium to its full capacity.

Started with Orion and could actually make out a very faint nebulosity with averted vision which was fantastic to see. Next up was a hop to M31 which I had failed to find last time but did so easily with my new method - just a pity some cloud came in just at that point!!

Next was Jupiter and 3 moons clearly visible - Ganymede at 10.30; Europa and Callista at 4.30. Will I ever get to see all four at once with my bins I wonder?

I had previously struggled with the double cluster (NGC 869 & 884) but again easily tracked them down but could not resolve many individual stars.

Auriga was next up and the 3 Messier open clusters (M36, M37 & M38). First M36 which was just visible direct but better averted, then M38 which was very faint with averted but definitely there and finally M37 which was faint with averted but I definitely found all three - amazing!!

After that a quick wander passed Pleiades - ever beautiful - and thought I would have a look at Polaris. It seemed to be a double but not sure if that was just me at the end of an exciting session seeing more than I think?

Have to say at this point that the temptation of a scope is almost becoming painful. The thought of tracking down these clusters with something more powerful is, well, rather powerful...!!