A good night

[welshrob87]

Had probably my best viewing session last night. Put my scope out to cool early and hoped it would stay clear. Started off with my first proper look at Venus with a cooled scope. Looked like a mini half-full Moon.

Next target was Jupiter. Could clearly see the bands and 4 moons. Noticed in the opposite direction that Mars had crept up over trees, so that was the next thing I looked at. Could just make out the ice cap but no darker regions. This matched pretty closely to the view Stellarium predicted. Alternated between these three for a while then decided to go inside before planning on going back out again at 2am when Saturn should have appear above the trees.

Decided to go back out before 12am to see if Saturn was getting near to coming out of the trees. To my surprise it was already above the trees so decided to attempt my first look at Saturn through the scope.

Wow! What a view! Surprised how yellow it was, and the rings looked amazing. Spent a while just watching it and attempting to photograph it (afocally). Managed to get a few decent shots.

Before I gave up for the night I could see Arcturus so decided to have a quick go at finding M3. Still couldn't find it, so just spent a few minutes looking with the naked eye.

BAM! A bright orange fireball meteor streaked across the southern sky (between Mars and Arcturus). Never seen anything like it before, it lasted about 3 or 4 seconds. Could easily see it burning and disintegrating as it went. Looked a bit like this image but less white and more orangey... APOD: 2009 October 15 - Fireball Meteor Over Groningen

[welshrob87]

Don't know where this image went but it was meant to be uploaded with the text.

[Double Kick Drum]

M3 is not the easiest thing to find despite being quite a bright deep sky object.

There are a lack of guider stars. I usuaslly track back from Beta to Alpha Canes Venaticorum, roughly half way to Arcturus.

Happy hunting!

[welshrob87]

Yeah I've tried a couple of times but just can't work out what stars I'm looking at.