Monoceros, Canis Major and Orion's elbow.

[cotterless45]

Crackingly clear frosty night to 1am here in Middle Earth. Orion was high in the South and there was dark sky beneath Sirius.Using the Telrad charts;

NGC2169 in Orion's elbow of his raised arm This is the "37" cluster,looking around the scope you can make out 37 in a very tight bright cluster at x100.I ended up looking upside down trying to avoid the mirror.

Back to Orion and the E and F stars to the trapezium with a x2 barlow and the 21mm Hyperion, nice seeing.

M46, M47, M48, M50 all delightful star clusters, found x30.

Even nicer and below Sirius is M41 with a red central star.

Beta Monoceros; a beautiful triple , with 2 close together and one nearby, stunning at x200.One of the finest star groups.

Then up above Monoceros to the Rosette Nebula with an collection of clusters and the Christmas tree cluster. Plenty of nebulosity in these areas.

Do get to look over this area with a wide low power ep, there's plenty to enjoy, even without a star map. Get seeing soon as this'll be going soonest.Most of the above was with a 200p SW Dob , apart from the Trapezium ( Lee's 10" Orion Optics)

To complete the night, Mars was just high enough to make out some markings. Nice evening, woke up to heavy rain!

clear skies, see you at SGL7, Nick.

[Double Kick Drum]

Good night's viewing and a good Southern horizon by the sounds of it. I've only ever caught M41 once and never bothered with the Puppis clusters.

[rory]

I've seen m41 once too. My location. Makes low objects almost impossible ,due to light glow and house's . Nice report, thanks for sharing .

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. I scouted around in that area some weeks ago. Love it