Great report - I always enjoy the read and I'm glad the weather cooperated with you. I can relate to dark adapting... when I got up at 3am, I put my red headlamp on and setup in darkness. I then made a cup of tea to take outside and blinded myself by opening fridge door ...
Interesting setup photo - nice and simple - things I can relate to. Love the observing chair! In the past couple of months I've expanded from scope and stool, by adding an aluminium table that collapses down. That's been handy. I'm still trying to distill the setup into a perfect no-fuss system. I wish I'd watched PhilW break down and pack his dob at Kallista a few weeks ago - I swear it took him about 3 minutes!
Regarding how faint you are going with this scope... I'm beginning to suspect you have amazing eyesight. Your eyes are a third of the optical network when viewing something (along with the atmosphere and your optics).