Good for you for getting out, Scott. I have to agree, the sky wasn't all that great last night, not like the CSC had it cracked up to be.
I fought a stiff southerly breeze and high thin clouds for three hours. I still managed to get in 9 Herschel 400 objects. I found NGC's 5557, 5676 and 5689, the first elliptical and the other two spiral galaxies in Bootes. 5676 & 5689 can be seen in the same FOV, so that was the best look there. I found NGC 5631, a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. This one is extremely faint and I'd have never spotted it without The List.
I got those two pesky open clusters, NGC 7128 in Cygnus and 7296 in Lacerta, that had been eluding me. I had to confirm that they were indeed the targets by using Steve O'Meara's Guide to the Herschel 400 book. They are both pretty but little groups of stars.
I caught two more spiral galaxies, one in Pegasus NGC 7448 and one in Aquarius NGC 7606. 7448 was a tough starhop (I went at it from Beta Pegasi) and 7606 was a dim object, but both were fun to look at.
I finished my Herschel hunt with the beautiful star cluster NGC 129 in Casseopia. It was a nice big object compared to the other eight.
Jupiter was cool as always, but not a real "standout" night. Three moons to the west and one to the east. The two closest moons to the west got very close to the planet before I packed up.
Was there an ISS pass last night at 4 a.m.?!!? I saw a brilliant object in a SW to NE orbit that passed overhead. It was as bright as Venus, but had no blinking lights, mainly white with just a hint of yellow.
I got in 5 and a half hours. I felt good about fighting through the clouds and the breeze. By 2 a.m. the sky was getting real nice. For me it was AGNFA 🙂