Comet Machholz, Saturn and the moon

Conditions:
Clear, poor transparency, seeing 2/5, moon at 62.2% waxing gibbous

Targets Observed:
Comet Machholz, Saturn and craters Plato and Archimedes

Music
None

Notes
Another clear and cool night, and everything well placed for viewing the night's prime targets.

Started with Comet Machholz which tonight is in Eridanus, a dim constellation south west of Orion. The comet lies two biocular fields WSW of Rigel (beta Ori) and appears just less than one field away from Zaurak (gamma Eri). It forms a little triangle with two magnitude 6 stars. The comet is glowing at magnitude 4.8, and is very easy in binoculars, even with a full quarter moon in the sky. No tail visible tonight, but there is some distending and the coma shows an intensity, but not a prick of light in my scope at 91x.

Moved on to Saturn, which is in Gemini, and sporting Titan at a PA of about 240 degrees. A clear dark band could be seen across the face of the planet. Caitlin had her first glimpse tonight and it blew her away.

We finally took in the moon, which is waning past it's first quarter. Crater's PLato and Archimedes were in glorious relief. Only a little viewing was possible before the moon flitted behind the Douglas-firs.

Saturn...finally!

Conditions:
Calm, foggy, seeing fairly steady, but skies very murky

Targets Observed:
Saturn

Music
None.

Notes
Finally a planet. After nearly six months of skywatching, a planet swings into view on a clearish night and I pried open the fog and cloud to see it.

Saturn was beautiful, a dun coloured smudge at low power, but easily seen at high power with the Barlow. Ring structure was clear enough, but the conditions weren't good enough to make out any distinguishing features. It just looked like a little planet painted on the sky. Seeing Saturn is unreal. If we get clearer nights, I'll try to pick off some of the moons; Titan at least.

Stuff to look for when the sky clears

Conditions:
Cloudy for weeks, or too early to bed for me to enjoy the odd clear sky

Notes

Notes here about upcoming things to look for now that I have missed the Geminids which flew above the rain storm last night.

• Comet Machholz rises in the Northern Hemisphere


• Saturn is now prime for viewing


• A Java script utility for Saturn's moons