Once again I have a long post over at
my blog... but highlights:
* Jupiter - of course - and it was by far THE most amazing and awesome view of Jupiter I have ever had, enough to almost make me want to sketch it. The main dark band was blindingly obvious, there was detail to the north and the south, and - perhaps most amazingly to me - the moons clearly appeared to be of slightly different shape and colour. Ganymede was obviously bigger and redder. I was totally blown away - as were the people we showed it to a bit later.
* M42 and 43 - I looked at them several times over the night, and it just got better and bigger every time.
* just lying back and staring up. Orion was pretty close to the zenith (we were pushing midnight by this stage), and the view was just delightful.
* probably my favourite awesome planetary nebula, NGC1360, with a bright core and a discrete cloud around it.
* nailing a host of doubles in Orion.