Hi Dave, glad to hear you had such a great viewing session, it really rocks when things go well doesn't it?
I got my first scope (the 10" dob, now sold) almost exactly a year ago - first light was the new moon at the start of April last year (as Ron's place of course
) and in that quick year I've learned 2 things.
First is that once you get the hang of collimating accurately, getting the mirror nicely acclimatised, and so on with a dob the night will come when it all comes together suddenly, and you have one of those "Wow" viewing nights where your scope is spot on, the skies are good, and the whole universe is displayed there solely for you to enjoy! Sounds like you just had one of those, congrats!
The second thing I've learned is that some of the best observing sessions I've done (not necessarily anything to do with the best seeing conditions) have been while sitting quiet and alone in some dark spot until all hours of the night, sticking with different objects for 10, 15, 20 minutes, letting the details seep into your eye and your mind until you have wrung every last photon from it before moving on to the next object.
It's fantastic to socialise, chat, compare scopes & eyepieces, etc, etc and I wouldn't give that up for the world, but there is something that can be very satisfying deep in the soul about a quiet and intense observing session, even if it is lonely as hell sometimes.
I hope you have many more great nights coming your way very soon - AND I look forward to sharing some skies with you again in the near future.
Steve