Best night observing for ages 27/11/11

[tbird]

What a great night it was last night:hello2:

Clear skies, no dew and the wind had died down. Started at sunset, with Venus just visible to the naked eye below the thin crescent moon and Jupiter just rising in the East. Once dark, amazed at what was visible in the 9x50 finder, globular clusters just leapt out.

Reluctantly went to bed at midnight as Mars was rising after great views of M42 and Jupiters GRS .

Up at 5:30, seeing not so good, but Mars and Saturn on view and the ISS as a bonus.

Why can't all nights be like that

[Episkey]

I just came in after a long night of stargazing too! I'm a bit behind you in the timezone, but I was amazed at what tonight had to offer. My favorite was probably M45.

[rory]

nice one. lets wish for more nights like yours.

i had very poor transparency last night,but i did show my lad m45 cluster for the first time at low power (x31) and he loved it ,said its his "favourite". so not all bad.

im trying desperatly to observe another galaxy apart from andromeda. just to see if my scope (and eyes) can manage it from my location. as of yet ive failed. doh !

clear skies...

[cotterless45]

Yep superb night, very calm,clear and with good seeing. We had 6 hours up to midnight before the clouds arrived.

Jupiter was crystal sharp, we watched the GRS transit across the surface. Andromeda was vast by eye. We could clearly see the clusters in and around Cassiopeia.Orion M42 was also vast by eye and stunning at x60.

A really great night, especially when the plastic binder holding the maps froze over!

[tbird]

What I really liked was how many objects were visible in the finder, even faint fuzzies appearing as a smudge.

[astro mick]

Started out really good here on the Yorkshire East Coast.Then half way through an imaging run i noticed high wispy cloud approaching form the West.(Approx 11pm)

I waited hoping it would clear,as a clear night was forecast.Cleared a bit so started again,but eventually clouded out by midnight,so decided to pack in.Still loads of mono subs to get,never mind the RGB.

Ah well!!!!!

Mick.

[steppenwolf]

One of the great joys of being an imager is that once the session is under way, I am free to do other things. Last night I spent ages just gazing in wonder at the heavens with no instruments required, what a superb experience that was!

[Crunchard]

All I can say is "damn my light pollution"

Jupiter was there, but I coud not make out the GRS at all. But then my only 'working' EP was the 32mm Panaview, my plossl's were a real let down (including the TV 8mm).

Anything else I tried was a washout ... beginning to think that having a light bucket in a light polluted area is a bit pointless