In other words…..I went stargazing last night. First time in ten days or so that clouds had permitted. Phew!

Like others, I’ve been waiting to set my eyes on Comet Hartley 2, currently passing through Cassiopeia. I found it, but it was fainter than expected. The periphery extended a long way, and the core seemed starlike, but it was difficult to pick out given the number of other field stars. The comet should brighten more over the next few days but in a week’s time the moon will wash it out and then, it’ll be gone again. Because the tail is in line with us and the sun, it just looks like a circular nebulous cloud.

So, phew: seen it.

Jupiter was putting on a nice transition of the GRS: that’s the storm by the way.

After that I hunted around for a couple of faint Caldwell galaxies, hoping that one day by some lucky sky clearance, I’ll spot them. But no luck. So it was onto M33 for something easier. This really was the best view I have had of it, and my drawing even picks out NGC 604, which is the brightest HII region of that galaxy. To see what an amazing object that is (compared to the speck that I could detect), see here for a Hubble image!

The Pleiades had just risen, and I also looked at the double cluster in Perseus. My, how the seasons advance.