For the first time in fifteen years I finally have a dark, private garden in which to observe! Last night was wonderfully clear and transparent, so armed with my C8 mounted on a Skytee 2 and Sky Safari on iPhone, I ventured forth.....

Using a F6.3 reducer and 21mm Hyperion giving 60x I started with M42. The detail was superb and it really was like viewing in HD compared to my usual 72mm refractor (which by the way is a fabulous as a grab and go instrument). The 'wings' of the nebula were clearly brown in colour and the trapezium a joy to behold. Plenty to see and I stayed fro some time 'getting my eye in'.

Next was the Pleaides. Not all the members could be seen in the FOV at once but two seemed to have large amount of nebulosity around them. I can't be certain as my eyes see a glow around most bright stars, but this was irregular and very large.

Next on to Ursa Major. I quickly found M97 and M108 and got them both in the FOV. M108 showed subtle mottling and a clearly visible star superimposed. M97 was small and surprisingly bright but no 'eyes' were visible. M109 was slightly less bright with none of the spiral structure visible to my eye. Scanning south, found M51 which showed a distinct gap between the two parts. Further south, another galaxy appeared, according to the charts it was the Silver Needle galaxy, but didn't look very needle like to my eye, perhaps I identified the wrong one.

I tried switching in 10mm Hyperion eyepiece giving 120x for some of these objects but it didn't really help. I tried the Seben zoom but the results didn't seem so good at any magnification, especially with the reduced FOV. This zoom seems to work better in the 72mm. I felt that a touch more magnification, say 80x, might have improved the views by darkening the sky and improving contrast.

By this time the moon was starting to appear so I finished off by scanning the milky way and visiting a number of old friends in Auriga and Cassiopeia.

This was the best observing session I have had in many, many years. The equipment delivered fantastic views and the new observing site was a dream, especially the ability to view south which I have not been able to do for a long time. So next time I shall be making the most of the southerly view by exploring the galaxies in Leo.