When the moon is not up and the weather is reasonable, we have star parties at one of our two viewing sites. Last night, we went to Alpha Ridge park. There were some clouds, but still much was viewable. I saw Mercury for the first time in my scope and in binoculars, and I even took a picture of it. In addition, Mars and Saturn were right next to each other in the sky, in the Beehive cluster. I did not see many stars in the Beehive as it was low on the Western horizon just after sunset.
I saw the International Space Station twice–very bright satellite. All four Galilean moons of Jupiter were visible in the scope. At 300x magnification, I could just see the Great Red Spot fade in and out, but Red, Jr. was nowhere to be found.
I failed again to find M81/M82, but will try again next time. However, I did find M51, which was barely visible.
I tried for M40 but got mixed up somehow and sketched the wrong double star.
