First night in 2+ months, a bit of moonlit gawking at midnight in the garden.

[pipnina]

Despite the 75% moon I decided to take some chances last night as the last clear night felt like a lifetime ago. My first time seeing Orion since spring started.

The main purpose was to test Kodak Ektar as an astro film stock, so after getting that going I had a general inspection of the sky that night. I must say the cold weather has brought it out nice and clearly. Not only were the stars barely twinkling at all, but typically I might expect about magnitude 4-4.2 to be my limit on a moonless night, however tonight despite the moony interference I was spotting stars of 4.5 with relative ease near Rigel and M42. When I looked further up near Perseus I could see in the most delicate of ways some stars around Mirfak, doing my absolute best to see what was going on around there and then conferring with my stellarium app I might have been spotting stars of even mag 5+! Certainly not common from home! Albeit these faint stars appeared as singular flicks of light spots in my eyes with slightly averted vision, but I still know that I have seen them and could only wish the sky would be this nice more often, or at least when the moon is not so bright!

I also directed my attention towards Andromeda to see if the good conditions might allow me any sighting of M31, alas I don't think I caught it tonight but I had moments were I wasn't sure if I was seeing the galaxy's core or the final link in the "andromeda road" of stars that starts with Mirach. Given as said star is mag 4.5 I think I was only seeing the star.

After my camera's exposure was complete I trekked back indoors and stood in front of the electric heater for a few minutes as by this point I was thoroughly chilled.

For christmas I would very much like some more clear skies please.

Good night all, and I wish you some fortune with the skies as well.