Venus and Jupiter

best night for ages Steve. I've been out with the telescope off and on since just before dark. Unfortunately when I went to take a pic using my daughter's digital camera it was set to flash and I didn't know how to stop that.
However they were a lovely pair to see just with the naked eye.
gardening by day and stargazing at night, when can I sleep?

Did you see double on the way back home. ;D

They do look amazing don't they, very clear last night.

While on the subject of planets, mars is also bright in the evening sky, currently in the constellation of Leo.
easy way to find Leo is to imagine the bowl of the big dipper (plough) is full of water and leaking. the water is falling down onto leo.
The bright orangey coloured 'star' in the lower section of the 'Lion' shape of leo is mars.
So now you know.

Yes, very prominent too last night and as you say, distinctly orange tinted.

Can't wait for dad to finish building his observatory at the top of the garden for his telescope. He built it all himself and even ground the mirror too. The only thing he couldn't do was get the surface of the mirror coated so had that done for him. He's even building the observatory to fit in with garden making it octagonal red brick with trellis on the sides for plants.

Here's a pic of it several years ago (taken on a slide for some strange reason). It will be great to have it housed permanently in its own home rather than having to get it out of the garage each time!

That's an impressive looking telescope SteveN and a very clever Dad to build it himself