Wow, what an amazing clear night!

[jonathan]

Just a shame it was only a sharp pain in my kidneys that meant I was up at 2am to see it. The star field was positively glowing, so many background stars visible to the naked eye from my skylight and lighting up the night sky, the brighter ones looking like jewels.

This morning the sky is beautiful and clear, the sun is shining. I might just have to get my solar scope out!

[Lorne]

You find nights like that are usually "unforecast" - I've lost count of the number of times I get up for my earlyshift at the back of 5 to find a totally clear sky that was clouded out the night before, and wonder - "when did that clear?" If it had been forecast, I couldve set the alarm a couple of hours earlier.

PS, hope your kidney pain clears too!

[Scooot]

I woke up at 3.45, had a look out to see it was clear, and went back to bed. Ummed and r'd a bit, and decided to get up and go out half hour later. Had a great hour or so before the clouds rolled in. Saw Saturn for the first time this winter. Brilliant view of M3, it was very high up, and also probably my best view of the Whirlpool and Sunflower galaxies. The sky seemed much darker than the late evening hours so all in all I'm very pleased I overcame the temptation to stay in bed.

[jonathan]

Maybe I need to start setting my body clock to wake up at 2am just to check. Can't stand alarms though.