Slightly delayed report...

[samtheeagle]

For the first time in what feels like forever I finally got out under the stars last Friday night! I'd forgotten just how relaxing it is to be pottering about in the quiet darkness with just the heavens for company... And with such a long time since the last clear spell coincided with my availability to get out and enjoy it, I had a bunch of things I wanted to do!

First things first, Jupiter! I'd seen this old fellow a while back when I stayed up till stupid o'clock playing with my newly finished autoguiding kit. This time he was kind enough to appear at a much more civilized hour This allowed my better half to come and take in the awesome spectacle! Considering that it was still pretty low in the sky, the moon was near full in the same part of the sky, and we had to wait until it passed behind a tree, the view was very good indeed. We picked out plenty of detailed banding, and the colours were showing up pretty nicely too. There was some good moon action too, with Europa an Io sitting right next to one another... But before long the relentless motion of the Earth had moved Jupiter out of view behind our house.

So, next up was to have a play with my Bahtinov mask... I made this thing weeks and weeks ago, causing myself great amounts of hand and finger pain carefully carving out the required pattern with a craft knife. So at long last, the moment of truth! I plonked it on the end of the scope pointed at a bright star, and lo and behold the fabled pattern. Very happy indeed, all the carving was worth it

The rest of the evening was just a general mooch around, I took in the double cluster, but otherwise it was just a kind of enjoying looking at whatever fell into my field of view...

Finally I tried to get my autoguiding working on my new netbook, but it appears that I've still got a few wrinkles to iron out there Perhaps autoguiding isn't the best thing to leave till last when you're getting tired?

Sadly it's wall to wall cloud here again Let's hope I don't have to wait quite as long again for another chance to enjoy the night sky...

[jgs001]

Sounds like you had a great session. Glad you got out under the stars though it's been grim.