17/11/12 ( a rare clear night)

[nightfisher]

I decided to bring my little Vixen 80m custom to Karins house, and grab an hour or so outside, first observation, its cold, very cold but clear, so out with the Russian hat, to keep my poor little ears warm!

First of i settled on my favourite target, M45, using a circleT 25mm ortho, i could get most of this cluster in the field, including Atlas, Asterope, Maia, Electra and Alcyone, i always enjoy this group on a clear night.

Then on to Aderbaran, i dont tend to view single stars much, but it was sitting there so a quick look, nice orange colour, i guess this is heading to being a red giant.

Next was Capella, i have never viewed this star and i was surprised at how similar it is to Alderbaran, in size and colour.

To round this short session of, it was only decent to have a lingering look at the mighty Jupiter, i could not get the GRS, maybe 80mm is just a bit small an aperture, but really nice to see the four moons Ganymede, Europa, Callist and Io all strung out in a near perfect straight line, like perfect diamonds, the best view was with my BGO 18mm with x2 Tal barlow.

Finished this session of with a quick split of Alcor and Mizor, always worth doing this easy double

[andrew63]

I was looking for deep sky sky stuff that night and only had a 24mm which gave 30x. But to finish off a short time observing a had a look at jupiter, although small with the moons in a line, as you say it was a great sight - diamonds and marbles...

andrew