With no Moon, and good seeing and transparency, last night was a rare one, of late, for backyard astronomers. Gail and I set up our 6″ reflector and immediately went to M42. As soon as we saw the Trapezium, sitting like 4 diamond chips, at low power (57x) we knew we were in for a good session.
The nebula, itself, looked like a hawk with outstretched wings, the southern portion extending right out of the 1 degree FOV.
As I looked up to get my bearings, a short, bright, meteor flamed down from Kappa Orionis and burst into fragments close to Mu Leporis.
Saturn was a real joy with Titan, Rhea, Tethys, and Dione. We also checked out galaxies M81/M82, M1 the Crab Nebula, M44, M45, and Polaris and it’s companion.
I finished the night by tracking down M79, a small glob below Lepus. Anytime I can see this from Grimsby, I know I’ve had a decent session. Hope you had a good one too!