Stop one was M42 an 43, the 9mm/100 was in place and I was rewarded with an image that I could not quite bring to focus, it was going to be one of those nights. I switched to the 11mm/82 degree for 160x and was rewarded with a good sharp image. The six stars in the trap revealed easily and I was able to just make out the F, G and one of the H stars. That was about as good as it was going to get. Anything else I went for was completely blown away by the extremely bright moon.
With it now being bright enough to almost read a book I plugged
Jupiter was in a decent spot so I figured I would switch to it. I had to drop down to a 14mm/82 to find focus, but as rewarded with all the bands and a moon transit.
I ended the night with the Pleadies. In went the 30mm/82 degree which just barely gets all of it in the
One hour after I started I was packing it in, my worst fears had been realized, I had been mooned.
