My 1st observing report 12/10

[acharris77]

Hey all, thought after all this time I would finally post a observing report of a night under the stars, as I enjoyed tonight. It only a short session. Also posting this as this is my 1st post for a while due to circumstances.

So tonight I decide that the sky is nice and clear and no moonlight, so I set up the scope about 22:45, give 20 mins cool down and I decide to start the observing with an old friend, jupiter. Jupiter was low down at around 23:05, but with good seeing I managed to see some nice bands and the moons, and I pushed the viewing with my 3x barlow and 10mm, which is a combination I aint been able to use for a while due to bad seeing.

Then I turn my attention to the M13, and with the seeing good and adverted vision and my eyes got more dark adapted with my eye patch on one eye, I could see the outer being slightly lighter than the center.

So I decide to look around the sky with my eyes and to my surprise I seen and really old friend I aint seen in a long time and especially through a scope is the M45, Pleiades. So I turn the scope and popped in my 25mm eyepiece and wow what a lovely sight of the open cluster. The field of stars was an amazing sight, so rich that is blew me away.

So after seeing that, I decided to pack up and go in as I was happy after seeing the Seven Sisters. This night was good, as due to the weather, clouds, moonlight and a really heavy cold I have been a bit fed up at not getting out and was losing a bit of heart in the hobby, but after tonight it really made me happy, esp seeing an old friend with M45 and I realise that the best is yet to come in the winter months.

[Breakintheclouds]

Sounds like a good night. I'm still waiting for Pleiades to appear from behind the big tree at the bottom of my garden.

[Doc]

It makes a wonderful sight M45 on a clear crisp night. Sounds like you had a great time.

[mdstuart]

Great report. My wife loves M45 and she is not usually interested...

Mark

[iamjulian]

Well done Anthony, stick at it! I didn't stay up late enough for M45 to get out of my slightly polluted north eastern horizon. I'm saving it for later in the winter. Your report makes me want to stay up though.