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Excellent report @Swithin StCleeve! Very enjoyable to read. I must say I love visual astronomy, to me a photo cannot compare to seeing the universe "live" through the eyepiece. Astro photos can be beautiful with the stunning colours, but to me nothing beats the subtle beauty through the eyepiece. Wishing you clear skies!

A nice report Davhei, I enjoyed reading your descriptions of the objects you saw.

Cloudy here in Perth but caught a glimpse of Venus, Mars and Saturn close together naked eye early in the morning. A splendid sight enhanced by seeing Jupiter a few degrees above the eastern horizon below them. Joe

Nice report Peter, thanks for the interesting read 👍

Last night I just managed to observe M 95 and M 96 in Leo for the first time. Happy with the results as seeing and transparency was bad due to a rapidly approaching thunderstorm. Had to grab the scope and rush inside as lightning bolts started getting to close for comfort😱 Joe

Good work catching asteroid Iris Stu👌

Great report @wookie1965👍.NGC 2301 in Monoceros and M 47 in Puppis are among my favorites open clusters. I enjoyed reading your report, thanks!

Great report as always Kostas! Your descriptions of those galaxies is awesome, especially the Needle Galaxy. I look forward to diving deep into Leo, Virgo and Coma Berenices this year. Well done having a good session in those milky conditions.

I enjoyed reading your report @SuburbanMak! Yes the sight of the ISS speeding across the sky through a scope and seeing it's solar panels is an unforgettable experience. Congratulations on your new discoveries!

Woah Kostas you and your son took those pictures? Outstanding! Great father and son combination 👍

I sincerely wish all you people in the UK clear skies for tonight 🤞. Still nice and clear here in the antipodes but I'm off to bed, early start at work tomorrow 😢. Clear skies!!

I just came in from observing the waxing gibbous moon. Standout features were the Marius Hills and crater Wargentin. Marius Hills looked like pimples on the lunar surface due to the low illumination. Crater Wargentin is an unusual crater with a lava filled floor. It has an interesting wrinkle feature in its centre which looks like a bunny rabbit to me 😁. The moon is endlessly facinating! Joe

I second that!

Well done bagging the Pup Kostas 🎉

Good luck Stu, I hope you get it. Happy observing!

Last night I got my best ever views of Sirius and The Pup using 343x magnification. The Pup was clear as day. Really happy about it!

Hi and welcome! There are a lot of good amateur astronomers on here. Clear skies!

These are excellent shots Kostas, nice work 👍

That's great! I hope you get to see our southern skies soon!

I hope you can make it below the equator "Down Under" one day!

An incredible series of observations @Ships and Stars! Galaxies galore. The views must be stupendous through your 20 inch monster! Great report 👍 Joe

Thanks Kostas. The Eta Carinae Nebula usually looks colourless to me, greyish. But last night the transparency was excellent. I could definitely see some subtle colours, hard to describe that colour, like a mix between pale red and yellow. That's one of the reasons my jaw dropped. It is so true what the experienced amateur astronomers have said, experience is like extra aperture! The transparency, more experience and altitude of the object came together perfectly. Like you I'm definitely seeing so much more now than 18 months ago when I started with a telescope. Amazing isn't it?

G' Day my fellow stargazers! We had a clear night here in Perth last night, so out came my 10 inch dob for some quality time ❤️. Usually I plan my observing sessions meticulously, but last night I decided to just observe on the fly and view anything that tickled my fancy. This was a night of admiring the showpieces of the sky. These were my observations presented below in no particular order: Waxing crescent moon: Our nearest neighbour was up first. Looked so beautiful at 48x, the entire crescent framed in the eyepiece plus the earthshine. Craters Posidonius and Theophilus were the standout features, along with the Pyrenees Mts. I observed Rimae Posidonius for the first time. NGC 4755: The beautiful Jewel Box cluster in Crux. There is a central bar in this open cluster called the Traffic Lights because of their contrasting colours. White, blue and orange.This cluster is small, compact and V shaped. Very rich NGC 3201: A nice globular cluster in Vela. Rich and large, to me it bears a resemblance to M4. Algieba ( Gamma Leonis): A pretty double star with orange components. One of my favourite double stars. NGC 3115: the Spindle Galaxy in Sextans. Wow, this was my first observation of this edge on galaxy. Surprisingly bright! Reminds me of M 104 in Virgo. M42: The Orion Nebula. Always pleasing observing this showpiece. Transparency was excellent last night, I think this contributed to M 42 looking as green as I've ever seen it. Simply stunning! Easily resolved the trap, including the E and F stars. Hyades Cluster: For this I switched to my recently purchased 10x50 Nikon binoculars. What a beautiful sight, Aldebaran and the Hyades all in the same field of view. This was hand held though, I need to get a tripod soon! NGC's 1935 and 2014: Back to observing with the 10 inch. These are two bright nebulae close to each other in the Large Magellanic Cloud in Dorado. Even in my bortle 6 skies they appear bright. NGC 2014 appears the brighter of the two. It was wonderous panning back and forth between them. NGC 3532: the Wishing Well cluster in Carina. This is an open cluster on steroids! Huge and rich, a profusion of stars. Dazzling! NGC 2070: The Tarantula Nebula in the LMC in Dorado. A true wonder. Tentacles of nebulosity arching all over, centred on the young cluster R 136. Beautiful nebula. NGC 3293: The Gem Cluster in Carina. What a beautiful, colourful, rich and compact open cluster! Small but very rich and bright. A rival to the Jewel Box cluster. My final observation of the night was reserved for NGC 3372, the Eta Carina Nebula. WOW WOW! It was 60 degrees above the horizon so I had not much atmosphere to contend with. Absolutely incredible sight, there are at least five open clusters imbedded within this great nebula : CR 18, CR 232, BO 10, BO 11 and Trumpler 15. Each of these clusters are brilliant, shining like countless fireflies while surrounded by delicate glowing nebulosity. The Eta Carina Nebula was very bright, and glowed light orange or yellowish to my eyes. My jaw dropped! I've never seen it looking this good before. Maybe because now I'm more experienced than last year, but this was truly an astonishing sight! The dark rift that slices it in three was clearly visible, as well at ripples of dark nebulosity superimposed on the bright gas. Eta Carina itself was a bright orange colour and the Homunculus planetary surrounding it was amazing, clearly showing two bright orange lobes from its outburst in the 1800's. @Kon you would love this sight as I know you are a nebula man! That wrapped it up for me for the night. It was nice to go out under the stars without a plan for once and just enjoy the beautiful sights. Wishing you all clear skies! Joe

Comming up shortly..

Yeah let's trade one day mate☺️. For Galaxies down here the best constellations are Eridanus, Fornax, Dorado, Tucana, Sculptor,Hydra and Centaurus. I can also view Virgo and Leo to the north. Coma Berenices and Canes Venatici are quite low down. Of course we have the Magellanic Clouds but you guys seem to have so many bright individual galaxies like M81, M82, M51 etc.. I was looking at Eta Carina Nebula last night, my jaw was on the floor 🤤