Great stuff, Michael. We must have been looking at the same objects at almost the same time from two different cities! A mate of mine and I were out until around mid-night under poor seeing. I looked at Jupiter earlier (I'm much more a lunar and planetary enthusiast than deep sky) but the image was too poor to see much other than the fact that the SEB had come back. We decided to concentrate on building a list of bright DSOs suitable for teaching high school kids (I'm a teacher).
Another object we looked at was a star about 2' west of beta Crucis, which is nameless in Stellarium but renowned for its beautiful red colour (some say copper colour). I have not been able to find much of a reference to it. Does anyone know anything?
Also, there is a planetary called the Blue Planetary nebula (NGC 3918) which is surprisingly blue. An image is at
http://www.ezystyles.com.au/gallery2..._itemId=431991
Does anyone have other suggestions for prime examples of colour visible in a 30cm telescope?
Cheers,
Geoff Mc