This weather is pretty depressing. Floods up north, clouds and rain virtually everywhere else. I haven't been out for what seems like ages. So it was quite surprising last night to see the clouds breaking at about 10.30 and I thought 'I'll set up and see what happens'. As luck would have it, clouds low in the south covering the moon but pretty much clear otherwise. As it was quite early, nebulas were out of the question and Jupiter is too low (behind my house), but there's plenty of globs and doubles about..

As a tester, first object was Albeiro. Always a nice view with the contrasting colours. I picked up a 5mm TMB/BO EP recently and this was the first opportunity to use it. Blimey! Albeiro's fairly easy to split but with the new EP, you could drive a bus through that gap! T'riffic views and sharp right across the FOV. This one's a keeper I can tell you.

Next up was Rasalgethi, another good two colour double. I'm getting quite into double stars, especially the colour contrast ones. Good for these short nights especially for me because I have to get up early with my two young boys and they don't need dark skies to enjoy them. I noticed a close double nearby and so I centred on that for a look. I didn't realise quite how close they were, it took the 5mm barlowed to get a gap in between them! In my 8", thats mag. x400! I did manage it but the seeing wasn't perfect so they were a bit wobbly. Still, I've never had my scope up to that high magnification so if nothing else, it was good to see it could do it.

M92. I think I actually prefer this to M13 as it's a bit like a smaller, stretched out but brighter version. Lovely once again. Plenty of stars resolved and a lot of detail to pick out.

By now it was about Midnight, and it was freezing! (Is it really the end of June?) So I thought I'll give it another half an hour and we'll call it quits. Then I noticed clouds rolling in from the West quickly so my decision was made for me. Whilst packing up I also saw an Iridium flare NE from me which was the cherry on the top really! A short but most definately sweet session. Just nice to get out and see some objects even if it was only for an hour or so. Fingers crossed the weather improves.

Tony..