Just came in to warm up....Burrrr. It is currently - 4 deg Fahrenheit with a wind chill of -15 deg F here in Sioux Falls S.D. Just finished observing Mars and M42, M1, M35, M36, M37, M38, M44, M45, NGC2392, NGC2419 and the Moon. Awsome views through my 120mm refractor. Moon caused a little problem on M1 but you could tell it was there.

Owners of the Orion Atlas and SkyWatcher EQ-6 mounts will be glad to know that the mount is operating flawlessly at these extremely low temperatures! The GOTO hand controller display is a little slow though. Had to rubber band a HOT HANDS hand warmer to the back of the controller to warm it up a bit.

Going back out to get Saturn, M95, M96, M65, and M66, in Leo. Think I will call it a Great night then!

JJ 

Awesome John!....I think I'll get out there and try to follow your menu!...Dave

 Yikes it was cold!!! Got Saturn and some of the Leo galaxies in. Moon was causing contrast problems. If it wasn't for the GOTO on my EQ-6 I would not have found some of these objects. The refractor did help to improve what contrast there was here in town. It is now - 8 deg F here. Wind died down a bit so wind chill was only - 11. I am froze to the bone. Nose running like a river. Got to where my eyes started watering to the point I could no longer observe. Had to breathe out of the side of my mouth to keep from fogging the EP. Eye heat and moisture was causing the eyepieces to fog up also.  I must really love this hobby!

Yeehaw!....I made it to Mars & M42 so far!

 Astronig

Do you have GOTO! I would think you could have covered a few more objects than Mars and M42. Of course they do take time to burn into the eye. Mars takes a long time to begin to pull detail out of. M 42, What can I say, Most awesome object in the winter sky!! 

A couple of shots of Brandy and I am warming up now. 

 Astronig

You must view M35. With a wide angle eyepiece M35 presents a large open cluster in Gemini. Located just to the outer edge of the field of view is another open cluster that many people miss. It is NGC2158, a magnitude 8.6 open cluster far behind M35. Use your widest angle EP and you may have to move the scope around in a spiral area near M35. You will notice a faint fuzzy patch.

JJ 

Thanks John,....Yea my LXD75 mount normally is spot on in go-to but on a rare night I guess I'm not getting as good of alingment so last night things were showing up in the edge of field whereas normally they are dead center.  I even had to hit spiral search a couple times. (which is a sweet feature by the way)...Soo I made it only to THREE objects last night & put away at midnight.   Saturn was lookin' pretty darn good as I was able to push 244x (close to the limit) on my AR5....This was good for just a bit then I had to back off to 190x.    At 244x the #56 Lt. Green filter brought brightness down and detail out real nice (at least to my liking) and at 190x the #80A Med Blue worked great!...Hints of the Cassini Division were detectable as where a couple nights ago I couldn't get them...I've made a list of the objects that you suggested and tonight looks like condition will be even more favorable so I will try to view a few more objects!....Sometimes I'll go through a list and hit a bunch of stuff and other times I'll just hang out on one object all night long!........Clear Skies!................................Dave