Scope: Bresser Sirius 70mm/900mm

Lenses: H20, H12.5, 2xBarlow

Location: Back Garden

Visibility: Good

Light Pollution: Heavy

Decided to have another go at viewing Messier objects in Ursa Major as it is currently overhead but didn't hold out much hope since my neighbours are turning lights on and off so frequently I suspect they are signalling to someone in morse code!

View finder on the scope is not allowing me to see enough faint stars to make star hoping viable and I decide to leave the search until I find time to go to a darker sight. It seems my wife was right to give it a miss tonight!

I consoled myself with a look at Mars directly over the Beehive Cluster - no star hoping required for that! Mars appearing almost circular (rather than starlike) under 90x magnification.

I remembered reading that either Castor or Pollox is a double so I decided to see if I could tell which it was with my scope and found that I could just make out two separate points of light in Castor - very difficult to make out at 90x and 140x, later research confirmed this to be correct. I also examined Capella and found it to not be a double.

Noticed another rapidly but steadily moving star and since all aeroplanes are grounded due to volcanic ash cloud, I am able to conclude that it is a satellite as I had suspected.

Not a great success but at least I know what a satellite looks like now.