Moonlight,Geminids, Sextans and Lovejoy.

[cotterless45]

Sounds like a dubious firm !

Even with the waxing Moon the sky was gloriously clear. I did notice a few Geminids in the north and Orion originating from that quadrant. Best of all was a white fireball with wiggly trail that shot from south to north at 5.05, ducked for that one. A strong meteor followed about half an hour later , through the gathered clouds.

M3 was stunning, M82 showed dust lanes and M81 signs of spiral structure. I caught the bright M94 and a few of the Canes Venatici galaxies .

I caught the darkening angry looking Great Red Spot on Jupiter with fine bands outside the main belts, lovely.

Mars presented a wobbly red disc, still no detail at x240.

C2013 R1 Comet Lovejoy was easily found in x8 binoculars besides Kornephoros (beta Herculis) . It was so lovely to see CrB and Hercules strung out between Arcturus and Vega rising in the north. At x57 using a 21 mm Hyperion, the comet filled the view and I had another shot at drawing at the eyepiece with quite cold fingers.

There's a lot of apparently empty sky under Leo, a quick search found Sextans and a quite bright Spindle galaxy NGC 3115. Very pleased with that as it was over the town glow. Some things are worth trying and possible, I did get the 11.7 mag companion to 41 Sextantis (giant white star) in this area.

We get few clear nights and even with the Moon there are some wonderful sights up there under

Clear skies,

Nick.

[estwing]

sounds like another great night nick,hope you wrapped up warm..i was shall we say...

[kerrylewis]

Got up around 2.30 and saw 16 Geminids in a hour despite the moon. The first one was by far the brightest (of course) about the same as Jupiter in brightness with al long train. I was hoping for another similar but it never came.

Got up again about 5.30 for a good view of Lovejoy. The tail clearly visible behind the bright head. Quickly set the refractor up on the Portamount for a better view but by then the sky was lightening. But a quick view of my old friend Saturn - the first through a scope since earlier in the year. The rings are very open and it bodes well for good morning views in the next few weeks

Kerry

[knobby]

Caught 4 just before bed at 1 ish through a gap in the clouds !

[Special K]

Nice report, Nick, and have to agree: there are some really wonderful things to look at up there! I had a similar but somewhat varied session starting at 4:30. Mars isn't giving up any detail yet, is it?! It's a lovely red at low mags, but I'm just getting a disk at 130x. Didn't try higher.