Cornucopia of urban delights !

[cotterless45]

Crescent moon sinking and the glow of light pollution illuminating possibly off the Bortle scale sky !

Gripped , sorted and set up .

Mars ! Just focus at x180 , 5.5 mm old school Meade UWA in the Vixen 102 f10. Sat there and let the views come . A large ice cap , then darker marking like planetary underpants. An aperture mask cut down the glare ....

Jupiter , the moons different sizes , a few bands . Wobbling like jelly as above the hot air of the town . Still an inspiring sight . 

Uranus , a green disc .Neptune had gone behind houses . Some decent targets , 

Auriga ..NGC 2099 , "the winter M11" certainly looked that way . M38, 36 and the fine M37 followed.

 Gemini ... NGC 2392 , a stunning view of the "Esquimo" . X180 showed the central hot star and a bit of the hood detail . ( cracker joke , "what's the slogan of the Eskimo lottery ?"

You got to be Inuit to win it !")

M35 , a stunning sparkling view , what a gem up from Propus.

Taurus...nothing doing with Hind's variable nebula , NGC 1555. But a view of the blinking NGC 1514 , "Crystal ball" 

Orion ..NGC 1662 , the "Klingon cluster" , comparable to the "Jedi cluster " NGC 2355 in Gemini . Lot of imagination and take more water with it !

Lynx..NGC 2419 and the elusive " Intergalactic Wanderer " our most distant globular . Go down the end of the fishhook , you might see a sparkle . Needs bigger aperture , a prayer and averted vision.

Orion ... NGC 2169 , the "37" upside down cluster .

Can't ignore M42, the Trapezium and searching for the faint companion to sigma Orionis .

Cancer ..M67 , overlooked but lovely . Leading down to Tegmine ( Zeta Cancri ) and that hard split of this triple . Easy at bigger aperture .  

Monoceros ...beta Mon. A beautiful bright stunning triple .(SAO 133317) into NGC 2244 and the Xmad tree of NGC 2264. Job done !

Clouds were coming in , bit of a dodge around session to get Bode's and a look at M31. Cassiopeia was over in the west , lovely view of the marbleous double cluster and some detail to Carolines rose , NGC 7789.  

A difficult evening as 600 houses have been built nearby and no consideration to light pollution. 

Hope you all had a great Xmad and all the very best for an exciting clear skies New Year ! 

Nick.

[wookie1965]

Brilliant Nick that is a great report objects I had forgot about (37) I got home from mums sky was gorgeous Jupiter was shinning really bright turned around dark grey clouds came over very quickly then rained.  

[RobertI]

Lovely report Nick, I’ve added some of those objects to my list for next time out. 👍

[Stu]

Great report Nick. I like the planetary underpants description! Very much like my view last night. Good to see you out again sir 🫡

[Knighty2112]

Nice report Nick. Was planning to go out and observe last night, but tiredness and clouds stopped that. I’ll keep an eye out for those planetary underpants on Mars next time I observe it.  

[Mr Spock]

A nice selection of targets. I just wish I could get some clear skies!