Observing report -- November 29, 2014

Tonight it was cold and clear; it snowed earlier today and was probably about -5 C when I went out (15 F). I didn't stay out long -- maybe an hour and a half of actual observing -- but it was the first time I've been out out since September. Wonderful to see Auriga, Gemini, Orion, Perseus and Pegasus...

• Pleides were the first target, just to see if I could fit them into the new 2" 31mm. No.

• After that I spent some time sketching M31 and M32. I searched for M110, and the closest I came was a "Oh, maybe that might be a little fuzzy perhaps." As it turns out, that's reasonably close to where it should be -- but I'm not willing to call this one found; I think it's more that I know where to look when I'm in a darker location.

• After this I did an alignment on the Magellan for the first time; it worked well, except that the display was very slow to respond -- presumably because of the cold.

• Used the Magellan to find M36, M37 and M38. All were lovely, and M38's X is very pretty, but oh, that M37. Such a lovely splash of stars.

• Bino break! M35, M42, M36 through M38, and M31. I'm impressed I'm able to find M35 and M36/37/38 so easily now; that was tough, bordering on impossible, not so long ago.

• Switched to Cassiopeia and tried looking for NGC 7789, but it was too damn cold; I found where it should have been, but could not be bothered to keep going.

Did I mention that the dew heaters worked splendidly? Because they did.