Time outside: 21:45 – 22:45 (neighbour’s floodlight came on rather irritatingly, so I came in)

Alignment process: Planetary (Jupiter) to see how it went. It went fine.

Conditions: I was promised clear skies, and it was! Given it is the World Championship snooker, I was watching that, but Ronnie O’Sullivan finished a session early, so I got out before it was even really dark

What I observed:

Jupiter and three moons. Yes, I know, but all good.

The moon, and attempted photos. Medium sized below, full size(s) on my flickr stream. And a post about how that went later.

Castor, in the 12mm. Oh yes. My, yes. I love doubles.

95 Herculis, for a bit of colour in my doubles. And oh my yes (reprise).

Overall, way less faffing, much more observing, although cut a bit short. Speaking of short, it seems I stand outside gazing upwards in shorts, as that is what I change into when I get home from work, regardless of the season. So not only do the optics cool down, but so do I…

I’ll start recording magnitudes soon, now that I have found my feet again.

And, to end with, here is the moon, in my first steps to astrophotography. Camera connected directly to telescope, no guiding, no real setting up of shot, other than what I guessed in the kitchen. I used my daughter’s camera, as it has a ‘live view’ feature, whereas mine doesn’t.

It looks so unreal in the lens