Hearing of Scott seeing the Milky Way from Rochester is very excellent news. It is also great to hear of more RAC members journaling their observations and going for observing certificates. I think that it makes observing more rewarding as it adds to an amateur's understanding of the night sky.
I got out for 3 and al half hours last Friday night and bagged six Herschel 400 objects, pushing me to the halfway mark of 200. I observed NGC 6624 (globular cluster in Sagittarius), a nice object that stands out well. NGC 6629 (planetary nebular in Sagittarius) a very challenging object that requires starhopping and increased magnification to pin down. NGC 5982 (ellipitcal galaxy in Draco) appears in the same FOV with NGC 5985, a spiral galaxy which is not a Herschel 400 object. I thought that they were both very cool to look at. NGC 720 (elliptical galaxy in Cetus) is another faint fuzzy in an obscure starfield, but still pleasing to the eye. NGC 613 in Sculptor was the toughest find of the night. This barred spiral galaxy had me starhopping from NGC 253 to 288 and then east to a group of eight stars where I had to search north of. Very faint and challenging. I finished the night with NGC 908, a spiral galaxy in Cetus that looks like a big faint streak and took some starhopping.
I got observations on Jupiter (which started out with 3 moons and finished with four) but it got so cold, I didn't get observations on Neptune and Uranus. I definitely could have used gloves and chemical hand warmers. I was very tired, I've had lots to do lately. But all in all, AGNFA! 🙂