Observing report -- December 8, 2013

Tonight I sat out on the front porch w/Neptune, the new Meade LX10, and saw what I could see. I was expecting it to cloud over at any moment, so this wasn't my most relaxed or attentive observing run...but it was the first in a a month, so it was nice. On the porch, the field of view is pretty restricted; I've got a 30 degree or so wide window from about 20 degrees above the horizon to a little past the zenith. That slice of sky changes as the night goes on, but also as the seasons change.

Tonight, M31 and M32 were easy to see. I tried tracking down M110, and I think I might be mostly sure I got where it shoulda been -- but no luck at all. After that I let the Magellan hand controller decide what to show me. Up came NGC 1342 was up first, and then came NGC 1502 -- apparently right by Kemble's Cascade, which I didn't know. Damn! Pretty, though, and this page has an amazing number of sketches of it. Then there was NGC 1622. All nice open clusters, and all observed in a hurry.

Finally, got a chance to look at Jupiter for the first time since the summer. Beautiful as always. I think I might have seen the GRS -- if true, it was a great deal obvious than last year (which'd match what I've heard about this apparition.)