Hello astronomy fans! ;D I got out there for four and a half hours tonight, and it was pretty special.
I started out the night with a Jupiter observation and could see Io just clearing Jupiter to the west. I could see the Great Red Spot, but the wind kept shaking the scope and could not tell for sure if Io had a shadow transit or not. (I think it did).
After that I caught NGC 1528, an open star cluster in Perseus, one of the better objects for the Herschel 400. It really is a beautiful, rich group of stars. Highly recommended.
After that I did my observations on Uranus and Neptune. They are well worth going after and it is really fun to be able to pick them out of the sky easily. These observations will only help when I send in my stuff for the Planetary Observers award.
I did binocular observations on Aldebaran and the Hyades, open star clusters M38, M36 and M37 in Auriga, looked at the Alpha Persei association, and checked out Algol, (was it at minima tonight? It looked dimmer that usual) and Epsilon Auriga. I hope that everyone remembers that this star will be undergoing its eclipse by whatever binary companion that causes it to dim for months.
I journaled galaxies NGC's 1052, 1055, 1022 and 936 in Cetus. NGC 1055 is a ghost! 1052 and 1055 are really tough star hops. These objects of the Herschel 400 almost amounted to work.
I finished the night with binocular views of Orions Belt and telescopic views of the Great Orion Nebula. What fun! I also caught three nice meteors tonight. 2 in Perseus (1st one at 8:18:58 p.m., 2d mag, short streak, white in color, fast mover, half second duration zipping straight down to the left of Mirfak, Delta and the Alpha Persei association.) The 2d was 3rd/4th mag., white in color, another fast mover diving into the same spot as the first meteor at 8:23:18 p,m.
The 3rd meteor of the night came at 10:32;15. That one was sensational!
It is time to go to bed, but I will sleep in peace. It was A Glorious Night For Astronomy!!!!