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G'day Shelly!
Sounds like one very frustrating session. You get those.....it can be very hard to predict, and so it is best to come to each session with an open mind as to what you may or may not get to see. I celebrate the good sessions, and remain philosophical of the frustrating ones. The most frustrating sort of session, for me, is where the seeing is fantastic but I have technical problems with equipment. Fortunately these are less common than when I started.
I started keeping a diary after about 6 months of observing, and it has made a huge difference. It inspires me to keep finding new things, and when I return to old favourites, I am often amazed with how much more I can see as my observing skills improve (yes, you see more with the same scope with practice), and depending on the conditions.
One thing I often do is a sketch of Jupiter at the start, middle, and end of the observing session. This would work well, if, for instance, your session lasted 4+ hours. You will notice significant changes in the appearance of the disk and in the positions of the moons. One thing you should particularly notice is that you will probably get better views of Jupiter as it gets higher in the sky, and as your scope adjusts to the ambient temperature.
Best wishes for future observing sessions!
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