[Sconesbie (Scott)]

I live North of Launceston and last night, we had some amazingly clear skies. You beauty.

As a beginner, I was quite happy finding stuff and looked for the usual things such as Orion Nebula, Pleiades, LMC and so on. I did notice that Betelgeuse is red/orange instead of white. Am I correct?

I couldn't find the jewel box or coal sack nebula.

I have a 10" collapsible dob. During the night a few funny things happened. Through the finder scope, everything started to look a little blurry or cloudy (skies were crystal clear). Through the eye piece it was fine. I thought it might have been fogged up and gave it a gentle wipe but didn't fix it.

Also as Jupiter was rising, you couldn't make any of the bands out (through the eye piece) no matter what size I tried. The thing just wouldn't focus properly. The higher it got, the better it became. Is that because it is has too much light from somewhere and the higher it gets, the further away from light allowing better viewing?

Anyway, I didn't stay out long (maybe hour and half) as I had work the next day. It's great fun this star gazing caper.