A night of Jupiter-gazing!

Last night was the most beautiful night I've seen in ages! I spent hours outside, and by the time I got back in I couldn't feel my feet! For the rest of the night, no feet!! But it was so worth it! The atmosphere was so still and the seeing was beyond perfect!

I hadn't been planning to go out, but on the way home from the cinema, it looked so wonderful, I couldn't stay indoors! It meant I had nothing planned though, and my red-dot finder is still battery-less, so I spent most of the night aimed at Jupiter.

(You can actually make out banding on the planet through the scope.)

I managed to get this snap of Jupiter and it's moons holding my (lovely new) camera up to the eyepiece. Not the ideal way to image planets, but I'm still working on getting a webcam setup... One day I promise I will take a decent picture of Jupiter. It is my favourite planet after all! 

Just before it got too cold and my fingers stopped working, I moved slightly north of Jupiter, up to my favourite star cluster, the Pleiades! I always forget how spectacular it is through the 25mm eyepiece! So beautiful! Again, my camera doesn't even remotely do it justice!

In reality, it was much brighter and there were hundreds more stars visible! 

In other news, I'm thinking of slightly changing the focus of my blog... Still probably going to be mainly astronomy, but with more general science and nerdiness thrown in! Think costumes/crafty things I've made, tv shows/books I'm raving about and so on... Doctor Who will definitely be included, sorry Jo! 

Anyhoo, it's a beautiful night out again tonight, so I'm off to brave the cold and give the scope another whirl!