2014q2 20141225 arobertson

 I got another view last night having ‘sneaked out’ just before 11pm. Saw it from about 2310 hours in the 12” Mewlon but there was already thin cloud rolling in and taking the edge of the view. Although it was clearing the trees better than the previous nights the fully un-obstructed views seemed to coincide with more cloud! The cloud slowly got worse but with occasional gaps although never fully clear. Having said all that, I could see it easily in my 11x70 finder and just about detect it in my 7x50 bins. I finally did a sketch at 2340 but the view was not as good as my earlier view.

 I thought it had a stellar core with a smaller brighter halo/nucleus around it followed by a larger much more extended fainter halo around that. Because of the clagg it was hard to define the exact extent of this. I thought it extended upwards more which would have been South in my view but with the thin cloud around it that is not a relia