Aborted observing session

Sunday 9th: The early evening started with a very clear sky. Not too cold either! I had my scope out on the patio, the RA drive was being a bit temperamental and I completed alignment on Deneb at 19:25 hrs UT. But before I could complete the alignment on the second star; Alpheratz, due to the drive again causing problems, I needed to eat my tea so I left the scope in mid-alignment and went inside. On coming back out to the scope, it ad gone into sleep mode and when it whirled into life it decided not to accept the Alpheratz alignment which meant that I would had to go through the re-alignment procedure from the beginning. As the sky conditions had deteriorated with high cloud sweeping-in from the west, leaving all but a few of the brightest stars readily visible, I packed the scope away. The only consolation was getting a view through 10x50 binoculars of Jupiter and Uranus and the waxing crescent Moon. All three objects starting to set in the western sky. Well, there's always tomorrow!

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