Best night for a long time

[D Wright]

Last night was the best I have had for a long time. I went out at 8pm with the clouds clearing and got set up then waited until it was dark to polar align. After having a giggle at myself for trying to align on the wrong star ( it wasn't really dark enough) got polar aligned then had a cuppa while waiting for scope to cool. I then went to check collimation only to find the battery in my laser collimater was flat so I had to leave it the way it was, slightly out but not too much, stars slightly fuzzy but coul still see the bands on Jupiter and 4 moons. On to some serious observing, found lots of things I have never seen before. M3, NGC5466, M51, M53, M101 and M53. I also managed to split some double stars so my scope was not too bad. The only down side of the night was that my mount still won't track (controller problem I think).

[Piero]

A great night out can be really refreshing! 

Glad that you spent a nice and nice targets in there too!

[Pete Presland]

Sounds like you had a very rewarding evening, I also thought it was one the best nights for a while.

[laudropb]

Nice report. You had a very good night. It's amazing how seeing varies greatly across the country. Last night it was very poor here.