Hello local list, I guess I've only just got around to discovering this list! I've been using the photos section for a while without communicating, apologies. I've posted many shots of Mars (new webcam toy) like a lot of other people with some animations which don't seem to be that common yet. I've also snapped Uranus and a few frames of the moon (just for calibration). Got back into observing last year after a change in job, country, and a baby all happening at the same time got me out of it 6 or 7 years ago. Got a Meade GOTO to learn the northern sky quick. Have been bitten by the webcam/image processing bug on planets this year which has cut into my real observing time on everything. I've only had time to take the scope to a dark sky site once, Boulder UT a few months ago - wonderful place! The scopes a winner but I will admit to be surprised at how sensitive it seems to seeing conditions, the 38% central obstruction gives it a pretty bright set of diffraction rings so I guess that's why. Being somewhat of a planet lover, I could not resist getting a few TMB Super Mono occulars (10 and 8mm) - they are due to arrive this Friday so expect bad weather. I'm looking forward to comparing them with my Radians of the same FL along with the UO's and TV plossls I have which are all great on planets but do seem to suffer a little with ghosting - recently sold my two RKE's because of that reason, they were terrible for ghosting (and also to help fund the recent purchase!). The Radians are my winter high power ep's as fogging is easier to manage with them. Anyway, I'll let the list know what I find. My personal challenge on the planets is to try and match or beat the detail captured by my webcam with a sketch, pointless I know but I find it fun - I've come close with the UO's this summer on Mars - I've posted some sketches if your interested. I read the posts on star system observing with interest - I was thinking of taking on a long term project of observing a select group of binaries and plotting long term co-ords, again just for fun. I get a kick out of getting tight trends from naturally occurring data. Anyway, my first of probably many ramblings has been posted! Cheers David