Well, I had a small window though the clouds last night and for the first time in what seems like weeks I could see the whole Orion constellation at one time. Below that was Mars - and it was in a clear spot.
The Moon destroyed the western half of the sky - exacerbated by residual cloud that lit up the west like a ball room.
Anyway, I persisted, and with an 11mm TV Plossl was rewarded with incredible PIN-point resolution as I focused on Mars. Only the tiniest of halos appeared courtesy of the sorry air quality.
M42 wasn't very bright, but neither would I have expected it due to the conditions. Any real nebulosity was hidden thanks to the Moon and the cloud. Nevertheless - the trapezium was so clear that it resolved all stars at only 32-power (355mm fl / 11mm) and it was still easy to view without squinting. Not bad for a 60mm scope.
Turning to Rigel and Betelgeuse I managed to view these rather bright little guys without undue colour. Even Sirius was startlingly bright but my eyes still didn't see any purple. I didn't get long enough to just sit there and get a good appreciation of the quality of view - 10 minutes later - solid cloud again.
I turned to the west to look at the Moon through it's slight layer of cloud and it was stunning at 32x. The halo was horrible because of the air, but what I saw promises fabulous Moon performance out of this scope.
Today I'm going down to Bintel and picking up a 2.5mm Nagler Type VI. Yep - 2.5mm. This will yield 142-power and a 0.58 degree FOV which, by all reviews on this scope that I've seen, is easily achievable without undue loss of quality. The little Tak reportedly handles high power better than its Televue rival, not that I'd know, but that's what I read. I want to really push it and see what it'll do when we get good steady air one day. I'd go for a longer EP, like a 5mm and Barlow it, but I believe that the scope is good enough to deserve its own dedicated EP of that length. I'll get Don or Mike or Mike to argue the point about which one I choose this morning. They're good at that sort of thing.
Next - clear sky, a polar-aligned Teegul SP-II and a camera
