Taking advantage of a opportunity, I had the chance to work the 3rd watch for a fellow who needed the time off. Not the greatest site in the inner city, it did provide me a semi-open eastern vista, and I packed the 90mm and 5" SCT in the van for a exploratory session.

Late summer is probably my favorite time for observing, as the skies are chock full of items to enjoy...and this session had a great deal to hunt down.

Above, Jupiter still hanging low to the horizon - it was my first view of the planet this season. With the 90mm refractor and Canon Powershot S3, I took as many decent shots as I could, but forgetting the powerpack, it was all manual and no tracking. I also brought the 5" SCT, but forgot my case with adapters and 1.25" eyepieces.

Sigh....

I spent the majority of the evening matching up little interesting star patterns in the eyepiece to the star charts on the Tablet - finding that the SkEye app was the most detailed of the many I have loaded - going down to the 10th magnitude easily.

The Pleaides were up and fit nicely in the eyepiece...



And...with the Subaru up, it means that Orion was not far behind...



Moving about from Hercules, to Taurus to Andromeda, I was having a nice time, solo and with the little scope - just exploring with no plan. But I have been spoiled with the C11 and it's light gathering abilities. The views in the little 90mm were nice with the 2" eyepieces, but it felt like I was across the street from a candy store and looking into the window. With the C11, it's more like my face pressed against the window...

Venus popped up over a rooftop and a brilliant half planet presented itself to me nicely...



Some object passed very brightly near zenith at about 3:30 am...



I had thought it was perhaps the ISS, but none were visible at that time...

Dawn started to wash over my observation window...



...With Venus at lower left and Jupiter at upper right. I did not have the open vista to catch Mercury, but maybe in the next few nights...as I'm scheduled to work the 3rd watch again... ;D