quiet night

After how long?  Nearly a month of a brutal work schedule and, if I'm not too tired, clouds.

So a quiet night in the back yard with Big Blue.  Seeing poor, transparency average, but all the same nice to be reacquainted with the sky.

Venus through binoviewers a shimmering slightly more than half orb.  It was just in the slot of yew trees; the finder angle was just out of reach and pointed to a yew, but Venus clear in the scope.

Jupiter through binoviewers: relatively calm clouds, not much going on.  Unlike the last time I saw it more than three weeks ago, with swirls of festoons, white ovals, turbulence in and around the eye, many bands, and a shadow transit...

I used my 7x35 binoculars while I was waiting for Venus to clear the yew tree.  From Spica up through Virgo I swept up Mel 111, the whole cluster in view.  The area around the Coma Cluster -- and I realized I entirely missed spring galaxy season this year.  Nearly all of Lyra in view, double-double and the red star near Steph 1 cluster.  Cygnus. 

I tried Jupiter again but the seeing was quite poor, likely heat radiating from a neighbor's roof.  Packed it in.  But wanting more.