Finally got to take my new-to-me telescope out. The moon wasn't ideal but it's storm season so there haven't been many clear nights lately. That and I was in dire need of some quiet solitude. I had intended to browse Ursa Major, but the position of the moon was problematic, in that it was glaring off of my glasses and eyepiece, so I turned my scope to Scorpius and Ophiuchus instead. After observing Mars and Saturn I moved on to the many globular clusters in the area. (And IC4665, the Summer Beehive Cluster, which isn't listed anywhere on this site but was a very beautiful open cluster.) It was interesting to see how different they all are, some brighter, some dimmer, bigger, smaller, denser, or more loose. Some of the clusters I'd already seen, but it was cool to see them through a larger telescope, many were much more well defined than I remembered.

Once I was done admiring the view of the early morning planets, I hung around to watch the sunrise. What a beautiful, if breezy, fall morning.

Finally hauled myself out of bed to take a look at the two planets I hadn't seen through my telescope: Mars and Mercury. Mercury appeared to be yellowish, and looked like it was in the gibbous phase. Very pretty, the only naked-eye planet I hadn't (knowingly) seen even without the scope.

Finally hauled myself out of bed early enough to go check out the two planets I hadn't seen through my telescope: Mars and Mercury. Mars was a gorgeous rust-colored ball, it's two moons clearly visible.