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Took a quick peek at Saturn. Mainly just to get oriented for finding M35 and M37. But I noticed that Saturn looked much more crisp. This night I could actually discern the Cassini Division in the Bands.

First up was M35. It wasn't far from Saturn and I found it quickly with the 25mm (24 power). This open cluster is a magnitude 5.3 and looked very nice. At 60x I could see a lot more detail, and many more stars it appeared. Then I went onto M37. This open cluster was more tightly packed, and looked brilliant in the eyepiece. At magnitude 6.2 I was expecting the full moon and city lights to make this a challenge to get to. It was even easier to find though. I wonder if polar aligning for the first time had a helping hand in that.

Then onto "the big show". Jupiter. By now, after observing these others, Jupiter was high enough over the Mountains to see clearly. Man, was it a sight to behold! I could see many cloud bands, many of various colors. The four easily seen Satellites of Jupiter (called the Galilean Moons) were nearby of course. I think I am going to order that barlow lens I've been looking at to get a better view of it soon. Then again, I just quit my job earlier today.

The Leonid Meteor Shower was pretty nice. I laid outside another two hours after viewing in the scope watching. Every time I saw a fireball or a bright meteor I would let out a couple sayings. My favorite was "He's on fire!" (from NBA JAMS Tournament Edition on SuperNES)  and "Burn Baby" (from Unreal Tournament on PC). Of course, a couple "Toast" (from Mission Impossible) found there way in.