Found the comet!

Conditions:
Clear, calm seeing, first quarter moon low in the west.

Targets Observed:
Comet C/2003 K4 (LINEAR), Albireo, M27 (Dumbbell Nebula), Almach (Gamma Delphinus), M11 (Wild Duck Cluster)

Notes
Found Comet C/2003 K4 (LINEAR) lurking off the west corner of the keystone in Hercules. It's a faint mist, shining at about ninth magnitude right now near to sigma Her (a star system that might have planets). At highest power, the coma is visble, but no tail to speak of. There is some distortion to the east (I think - still getting used to directions in the scope). Exciting to see my first telescopic comet.

Turned to Albireo which I have seen in scopes before, although this was the first time with mine. Such a beautiful pair, one blue, one red. The seperation was very easy (35") but seeing them as pin points was spectacular. So clear tonight.

While I was in that part of the sky, I added to my Messier list with M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. This was great at all magnifications, even with the Barlow. No structure beyond a slight hourglass figure. Very bright.

Nearby, the third brightest star in Delphinus is Almach, which is a lovely double. Close for my scope at 10", but easily seperable tonight, when everything seemed so clear and easy to get. Like Albireo they are coloured but yellow and blue, easily seen in the scope.

Finally swept the sky a little around Capricorn, but could find the deep sky objects I was looking for, so I trained my high power and Barlow on M11, the Wild Duck Cluster, for an amazing view.

Comet hunting

Conditions:
Clouding over, clear, moderate seeing, first quarter moon

Targets Observed:
Moon, M93

Notes
Only got about 25 minutes of viewing in before some high cumulus cloud built in. Observed the moon, noting especially Copernicus. Viewed the earthshine as well.

Tried looking for Comet C/2003 K4 (LINEAR)which is in Hercules at the moment. Moonlight washed out the sky, so it was hard to find. Ended up looking at M93, the other globular cluster in Hercules.

Lots of sattelites up ther. Had two in the same field of view in binolculars at one point.

First glimpse of the Moon

Conditions:
Clear, murky seeing

Targets Observed:
Moon

Notes
First glimpse of the moon in the scope - what a sight! Mostly taken with Theophilus.

Seeing was very murky as there was a warm wind blowing, so images weren't steady for long. Observed for about five minutes before the moon disappeared behing some trees.

Double stars in Bootes, Ophiuchus, Scorpius, Hercules and Ursa Major, M4

Conditions:
Clear and calm, good seeing above, heavy light pollution in the south east

Targets Observed:
Double stars in Bootes, Ophiuchus, Scorpius, Hercules and Ursa Major, M4

Notes
Izar is said to be one of the most beautiful doubles in the sky, with a white dwarf and a orange giant lying 3 arc seconds from each other. I could seperate them though, looking at them first around 11:00. The sky was still light on the solstice. Took a peek at Zeta Bootis as well, but with only one arc second of seperation, no luck there. But with such eccentric orbits around each other, I can try again in 2082 when they will be farthest apart!

Moved to easir targets in Ophiuchus. Rho Oph is a triple star, easy in binocs and well seen at low power. It has colour to it, but I didn't see it tonight. Rho Oph lies very low in the sky, near Antares and suffered from light pollution tonight.

Turned to two targets in Scorpio: beta and gamma. Both are beautiful doubles, easily sperarated and similar to one another.

In Hercules I saw two more doubles: Rasalgethi (alpha Her) and Kappa Her. Rasalgethi is a variable star and the name in Arabic means "Kneeler's Head." It is a close pair, seperated by 5 arc seconds and just barely visible at the highest power. They are an optical pair only.

Viewed M4, a globular cluster in Scorpius, was pretty tricky to find. I used the atlas and finally found it in a little triangle with Antares and Sigma Sco. Appeared as a very faint, but surprisingly large.

Finished up in Urs Major with a view of Mizar and Alcor and split Mizar.

Exploring Lyra

Conditions:
Clear, steady seeing, sky along the horizon very bright with light pollution, no moon

Targets Observed:
Epsilon, Delta and Zeta Lyrae and M57

Notes
Nice introduction to one of my favourite constellations.

Set a task of finding some double stars tonight and started working through the Astronomical League's list of the Top 100 double stars. Began with the famous double double Epsilon Lyrae, which was the first double star I ever found on my own with binoculars. Tonight I saw the doubles and noticed that they seemed aligned perpendicular to one another. Not really clear separation, but enough to see the shape.

Delta Epsilon was interesting, and like Zeta is clear to see, and one star much dimmer than the other.

looked for M57 and couldn't quite believe it when I saw it. Looked like the scope was out of focus. At highest powers, definitely saw structure in the nebula, although not very clear. This nebula is lit by a star shining at 15.9 magnitude, which is dying.

Tried for M56 but with no luck. I'll get more detailed charts for that globular cluster.

Looking for M101

Conditions:
Clear, no moon, steady. Some haze along the horizon and usual light pollution in the SE.

Targets Observed:
Antares, Alcor amd Mizar, M101, M11, M13, unidentified Milky Way clusters

Notes
Plan tonight was to find deep sky objects in the Southern Milky Way. The seeing in that part of the sky was bad, but tried nonetheless for M4 and IC 4604, 4605 and 4606 all around Antares, but with no luck. Too much light pollution in the southeast.

Turned my attention to M101, the spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. Took a long time to find, and couldn't see it at all with binoculars. Finally located it and was surprised by its size. Couldn't resolve any detail, and it was best in the 25mm eyepiece. Meteor crossed the field of view coming from Bootes, possible a Bootid.

Went looking at a number of open clusters in the southern Milky Way while trying to find NGC6633 and IC4756 and eventually looked at M11 again. Very nice seperation again tonight and surprised as a satellite flew through my field of view.

Finsihed up with a look at M13. Could almost resolve some structure there tonight.

First time out with 4" refractor

Conditions:
Clear and steady seeing. No moon.

Targets Observed:
M5, M3, M13, M92, M11

Notes
Success with my first five Messier objects. First four are globular clusters, M11 is a lovely open cluster, nicknamed the "Wild Duck." Very easy to see the 9th magnitude star at the heart of the cluster and got very good seperation on dozens of others. Structure of the cluster was quite clear. No problems finding any of them.