short session

A short, but very satisfying session for an hour with the Astroscan.  Seeing was predicted to be poor so I didn't try anything larger; in fact the brighter stars twinkled madly, so this was the correct choice.  At 17x and a 3 degree field, I first took in the Pleiades, then moved along to various targets I could find using just the peep-sight and sweeping.  Melotte 20 open cluster in Perseus, with its lovely loops of bright stars.  The Double Cluster, small and dim in this scope.  M103 in Cassiopeia, along with the sprinkle of faint stars in the area, and hints of other open clusters.  Back to Perseus and M34, small and a little scattered.  M31 showed the bright nucleus and hazy inner core, but no sign of its companions; where the halo should be was devoid of stars.  The area around Gamma Cygnus was chock full of stars, a wistful reminder of the Milky Way stream now setting.  I was able to make out NGC 6910 as a small triangular knot of stars.  Scanning about brought me to M39, a comparatively large, lanky group.  I even panned low for a look at Epsilon Lyrae, and the Steph. 1 open cluster.

I had been biding my time, waiting for Orion to rise high enough for a look at M42.  I glanced over from time to time, but could not see it.  Finally I realized it was lost behind thin cirrus blowing up from the south.  We're to have rain this weekend so this was the leading edge.  I leaned back in my chair and took in the advancing wing of cloud, tinted pale orange by light pollution, slowly advancing on the starry part of the sky.  I hoped to see some meteorites but there were none.  The clouds grew thicker to the south, and now the leading serrated edge was at zenith.  Packed it in and came inside.