Observing report -- April 5, 2012

Full moon, impending cold, lack of sleep -- don't care. It's a clear night, it's a long weekend, and it's time to get out.

Mars was wonderful. Saw detail easily -- much more easily than I did last time. Near as I can tell, I saw Mare Acidalium in the north, and Sinus Meridiani/Mare Arythraeum (which, hey, is reasonably close to where Opportunity is in the south. Oh, and the polar ice caps. Got even clearer as the night wore on; not sure if that was the seeing or the scope cooling off.

M36/M37/M38 were pretty easy to find, which is nice -- these gave me a lot of trouble previously. Saw M38's Chi shape.

For shits and giggles decided to try and find M81/M82 to see how a full moon in a suburban location compares with a semi-dark site on a nearly new moon. Well, damn me if I didn't find them -- with binoculars for M82, and both of 'em in the scope. No, the view wasn't spectacular, but it was incredible to me that I could see them.

The Moon was lovely, even full; I could stare at it for hours. Aristarchus was pretty, as was Copernicus and Tycho. Tried sunglasses and that worked well for the 40mm view -- which is almost my favourite -- but not so much for higher magnifications.

Back in at 11.25. It's really nice observing so close to home.