Observing Report - July 23, 2016

Tonight I went out to Boundary Bay with the Dob; it has been a long time since my last observing run. Here's what I saw:

• Mars, with some detail -- probably Mare Acidalium & Siunus Meridiani. Held up well in the 6mm Radian, considering how low it was.

• Saturn, with the Cassini Division easily visible. Also: Titan, Tethys, Dione and Rhea; couldn't pick out Enceladus.

• M9, glob in Ophiucus, which seemed to be a bit lopsided. Hint of resolution.

• M62, which has no hint of resolution at all. Quite low. Maybe a bit lopsided as well?

• M24, which was nice in the 15x80 binos.

• Beta Cephei and Delta Cephei, two very nice doubles. And of course, Delta Cephei is the prototype for Cepheid variables.

• Gamma Cephei; unremarkaable to look at but it's 45 light years away (almost my age!) and has an exoplanet.

I looked for Pluto but couldn't get it; 12th mag was hard to see, let alone 14th, and the moon was just starting to shine in my face.

Showed a couple of folks sights through the telescope & answered their questions; saw an owl hunting.

Okay night. I was not feeling the enthusiasm tonight, though.