Achievement unlocked! Five in a row!

Did it! Got out of bed at 5am and Weis and I viewed the cosmic wagon train of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury and the Moon stretched across the sky.

As predicted by Stellarium

We even got a bonus ISS sighting at 0530 as well - well, Weis did, I was distracted fiddling with the camera and didn't realize what she had spotted.

When we first got out Jupiter was clear to the left of the pine tree, and then heading Eastwards there was Spica, then Mars, then the bushes and fortunately Saturn was on the other side of those.

Jupiter

Spica and Mars

Acturis and Saturn

 
We checked out Jupiter, Mars and Saturn with Dobby - I'm really enjoying the range of EPs I now have (even if they are simple Skywatchers) Used the 17mm, the 8mm and then the 8mm plus the Barlow on Saturn. Magnificent views as the sky continued to offer great seeing and transparency!  I would estimate the seeing as an 8/10 and the transparency could have been 10/10.

Jupiter was beautiful.  The bands clearly visible and the four moons clear with three on the right of the planet and one to the left.  No details were clear on Mars, but it was bright and very salmon coloured.  Tried a few of the filters, but they didn't help to reveal any extra details this time.  Saturn at high magnification with the Barlow and the 8mm was absolutely gorgous. 

I took a few photos using 6 second exposures, the best of which are below.  Some trailing is evident.  I set the ISO to 100, use manual focusing and let the camera determine its own apeture.

By now Venus and Mercury were rising, but Dobby couldn't get the right angle on those.So I took the finder scope off Dobby and used that hand-held to check out Venus.  Always like seeing the phases of Venus - this time it was gibeous.

Then a thin crescent moon rose and I snapped a bunch of photos as dawn broke, and it was clearly time to wrap up the observations and head back to bed to grab a few more hours of sleep.

Scorpio and Saturn

A great shot of Scorpio

Venus and Mercury over the house

Shot of the evening: Venus, Mercury and the crescent Moon

Another fine night

05/06 February
 
Finally the clouds have parted for a promised week of decent summer weather, and I've been able to get out for another Friday night with Dobby.
Being the same time and only a week after the last observations, much the same part of the sky was on offer. So I started with another attempt at viewing M41 in Canis Major. This time I started with the 30mm EP, and a better idea of where to look, and managed to find it promptly. Its a large object, a beautiful open cluster, that fills most of the EP.  Tried also with the 25mm  and the 17mm EPs, the 25mm gives a great view but the 17mm is too close, loosing the effect of the cluster.

I then returned to M42 with the 30mm.  I'm loving the FOV on this EP.  The seeing tonight is about a 9/10, very little twinkle happening.  I then tried the 17mm and 6mm with and without the Barlow, trying to make out more detail.  Mostly seemed the same, just closer.  Perhaps darker skies will help. 

M43 is another part of the same nebula complex, but I'm having trouble discerning it.  Either I can't see it from here, or I just can't tell the two apart.  More research is required, I'd say.

Checked out Jupiter again, looked great but still can't identify the GRS, if it is visible tonight.  Tried the filters again - looks like the Yellow and Light Blue are probably the best results tonight.

Then went looking for Omega Centauri (NGC 5139), but it was down behind the roofline for Dobby.  So I checked out the Jewel Box Cluster in Crux, which was beautiful with a small cluster of red/orange stars amid a cloud of tightly packed diamonds.  View through the 30mm, 17mm and the 13mm EPs.  The 13mm seemed best in this case.

Then I moved Dobby down the path towards the gate.  The street lights are brighter there, but I had my back to them to look South.  Now I could see Omega Centauri - I star hopped from B Centauri to E Centauri and then drifted a bit further on and could clearly see the fuzzy blob.  Using different EPs:

30mm - A cloud-like misty blob
17mm - Could start to resolve some stars
13mm - Not bright, but can see a magnificent cloud of stars
8mm - About full FOV now.   Absolutely awesome.

I'll have to revisit this object in a nice dark sky.