Quick Visual Observing Session

Tonight was supposed to be a nice night. The Skyclock predicted clear skies with 2/5 seeing, so I headed to the Dam for some visual work. I wanted to focus on bright star clusters. A small crowd gathered there, eager to catch some photons after a pretty ordinary December (zero viewing opportunities due to shoddy weather). However, we were plagued with wave after wave of cloud bands which really interfered with much of what we observed.

So, my log was pretty sparse for the evening:

• The Moon (at the risk of killing of my night vision)
• M42 Orion Nebula
• Venus (lovely semi-phase disc with some cloud banding visible)
• Double Cluster
• M37 and M36 in Auriga

I did manage to mess around with star trail photo attempts, the below being my best. Way too much light (light from the Moon and light pollution in general) but it was a fun activity.