kazakhan.com
The clouds finally parted and i got a good view of the moon tonight. I was checking out the craters and mountains on the western edge. i need to find a detailed map of what i'm looking at. I got some reasonable close-ups with a 4mm eye piece and 2x barlow, which was an unusable combination on the first night, it was just too hazy. I wanted to check out Saturn but it was just too bright and i don't think my telescope is really cut out for it. I've had better views of Saturn with the naked eye so eventually i should get a decent view. One thing i was unprepared for was just how quick the moon moves across the field of view, it was quite breathtaking. I can't wait to get another telescope with a computerised mount and camera. Once i do it's going to take some doing to pull me away from it.
It has still been cloudy most nights so i haven't done anymore viewing. Also the moon is rising well after midnight now and i'm usually too tired to have a look. Today i bought a copy of Australian Backyard Astronomy from Australian Geographic, i've only flicked through it so far. I hope that my daughter will be interested in reading it.
Tonight was clear enough to get a great view of the orion nebula. It's the first time i've seen anything like that and despite not having any filters i was impressed. Given there was no colour my daughter was a little indifferent. I've been trying to get a decent view of the orion nebula since i got my telescope but it's always been a little too hazy. I used a 10mm eye piece and the barlow. I could not get a good view with the 4mm eye piece and barlow which i think was more to do with the low quality optics than anything else. Hopefully i can get to see the rings of saturn next...
It has been raining most of the week and i haven't even bothered to check to see if anything interesting is about, not much point when you can't see anything. I had some great views of the moon and the orion nebula again just before the rain set in. I really need to get some filters and a camera and also find some other things to look at 
The Fifth Element