A very powerful full moon tonight in a very clear sky. Very strong moonlight.
Got back late from my night class (clinical education – teaching doctors to be teachers if you must know!) and wanted to take a quick look out.
Had looked at moon last night and too bright to look for DSOs, so got my trusty 16×60 binoculars out.
I wanted to look at Caldwell 41 – the Hyades cluster centred around Aldebaran – a beautiful red star close to Jupiter at the moment.
Looking through binoculars at Aldebaran, you can see a cluster of surrounding stars – mostly doubles. Really a very pretty sight – I can see why Sir Patrick (Caldwell) Moore included it in his list of 109 objects.
Also had a quick look at the Orion nebula (M42), the Pleiades (M45) and Regulus.