[cahullian]

I found those pesky planets.Between midnight and 1.30 am Not for the lack of trying I can tell you. The first one I spotted was Neptune, I wasn't too sure at first but after looking at a few other stars of the some magnitude and then going back to the planet I could easily see the difference in size.I located Neptune between the stars in Capricornus with the Greek l (with a bit of a squiggle, LOTA)and O(with a line through it,THETA) to the left and above the l(with a squiggle) star is another bright star (not sure of its name) there were three faint stars to the right and just below this star Neptune was the star on the lower right of these three.(I hope that makes sense) Not much colour apart from grey could be made out,sometimes I thought I could see a very very pale blue but I think that was wishful thinking. I was using my 9mm GSO plossl with my Orion shorty plus X2 Barlow that gave me roughly 250 magnification. Viewing was about 5/10 and and seeing was a bit better say 6 or 7/10. I started to do a little jig ( not a sight to be viewed by the faint hearted)
Then I went hunting for the other nasty (Uranus). This was the first time I really tried for this planet as Neptune was the one I was really after. With the information I got from the Universetoday and skyviewcafe I found Uranus within about 15 mins it was the third star to the lower left(right in my telescope, you know what I mean) of the Aquarius star with a Greek upside down y(LAMBDA) attached to it. This planet was a lot larger also looked grey but at times I could make out a very pale blue/green colour (it was flying past my FOV and it was nudge nudge all the time). This was the first time I had a good search for the planets when they were high in the sky. It made it a lot easier than trying to find them aroung 10 pm or so. After finding Uranus I started to dance to Depeche Mode's Waiting for the night to fall and Dream On this also wouldn't have been a pretty sight but I was so happy (If I didn't have a bad back I would have done cart wheels and back flips). By this time I was able to have a good look at Mars as it was well and truely on the rise. I couldn't make out much detail at all but it was bright and shiney and there was a hint of darker patches near the bottom right of the bubbling mass(wishful thinking again I think) All in all I thought it was the most exciting night I have had under the stars.

Gazz