Poor conditions were a disappointment; I think it's mostly dew / fogging on the scope (I was taking care to keep my frosty breath away as much as possible). Couldn't get good focus on stars and a massive halo around Jupiter.
Nonetheless, got some seeing in of:
- Jupiter - Closer to vertical than on previous views (well; it's just past South at peak altitude, what did I expect?). Nice to see an out-of-plane moon although I've had to verify in Stellarium that it wasn't anything else (Callisto; Io's on closest-to-Jupiter in-plane duty tonight).
- Betelgeuse - Much redder than I was expecting, although some of that might be exaggerated due to diffraction and the focussing problems I was having. Very distinctive though.
- Aldebaran - Again, much more colour than I was expecting
- Pleiades - Would be a fascinating object to study with the right equipment; I was getting too cold to do it justice
- Procyon - Again, quite distinctive but couldn't get steadied down enough to have a good gander.
As ever, though, it's the surprises that make it. As I was eyes-out looking around for a good target, at about 2045ish, a very large very bright orange fireball went over from about Jupiter (South-South-West) pretty much due-north. It's the first time I've seen one leave a big trail, with visible "sparks" breaking off. It got right overhead and disappeared (burnt out?) about 45 degrees above North. The whole thing only lasted about 10 seconds from appearing, growing a tail, particles streaming off, to disappearing. Very impressive. If I lived elsewhere and it'd been East-West I'd have guessed it might have been Phobos-Grunt re-entering.
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