observing from Peter's yard (Etobicoke)

Headed to Peter's to drop off the repaired Dobsonian. Found him in the front yard with his little Newtonian looking at the gibbous prismatic Moon through thin frigid clouds. 26mm with a doubler. I aimed to the rich area near Clavius.

After I showed him the focuser repair, we noted holes in the clouds. We briefly spotted the Pleiades (Messier 45 or M45) straight overhead in a pocket.

We caught up. I shared that it looked like I'd be inheriting a classic 6" Newt soon. He sought advice on his Orion parallelogram.

Back outside, despite the cold, we did a bit of observing. The south-east had opened up. Peter loaned me a 31mm Nagler.

Took in the Moon after trying to adjust the finder scope. Weird lighting in Copernicus. Does it have multiple centre peaks?

Then I put the 8" on Sirius. While low, it looked OK. Some faint stars nearby. I was happy with the collimation. I could easily focus. I did not notice image shift. Huh.

From the street, Peter spotted Jupiter. I moved the loaner Dob and bulls-eyed the beige dot over the neighbour's house. Four moons. Two stars perpendicular. I knelt on the ground. The cloud bands appeared. A nice view. Later it swam in the heat waves.

Wow. First observing in a long time.