First observing session with RASC, and essentially another night of familiarization with additional perks from the other members.

Basic plan was to follow through with my Autumn Grand Tour, Skills Practice and Bino Viewing that I pulled together from the RASC Beginner's Handbook.

Planned and saw the following
Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, Hercules, Casseopeia, Cepheus, Auriga (didn't start showing until 22:00 or so, and then only partially), Cygnus, Sagitta, Aquila, Scutum, Summer Triangle, Teapot of Sagittarius, Corona Borealis, Delphinus, Aquarius, Piscis Austrinus, Pegasus, Pisces, Andromeda, Cetus.

Planned to see Camelopardalis, Lynx, Taurus (partial), but they weren't visible due to the northern latitude. I also wanted to see Capricornus, but didn't get around to it.

Lastly, got to see Vulpecula, even though I hadn't planned on seeing it.

In terms of bright stars, I saw, Polaris (ursa minor), Algol (perseus), Mira (cetus), fomalhaut (piscis austrinus), altair (aquila), Deneb (Cygnus), Vega (lyra) and Capella (auriga). Unfortunately, northern latitude prevented seeing Aldeberan (Taurus).

Also I saw the following: M11 (scutum), M31 (andromeda) and M33 (triangulum), and 90% certain that I saw M15 (Pegasus).

I did get to see other things that I had never planned on seeing: M45 (Pleiades), the double star at star #6 in the Big dipper, a complete view of picses, the double cluster (between perseus and casseiopeia), M103 (in casseiopeia).

Alos, Darrin (from RASC) had his Dobsonian scope there, and I got to see the following: M20, M27, Jupiter with it's four moons. Lastly, Darrin had pointed me to look at Albeiro (head of Cygnus), with the binos, I couldn't hold them steady enough to split the double-star, but Darrin, let me look through his scope. One star was orangy-red, the other was greeny-blue. Very Cool!!!!

Overall, pretty crappy night for observing. When stars were visible they were fuzzy; likely due to cloud cover.

Did get a chance to see Jupiter again. Showed Janessa. She was under-whelmed.

Saw something cut across the sky in an East-to-West direction somewhat above the horizon that didn't have flashing lights. Not Sure it was, but it took about 1-2 minutes to cross.

Also saw something glide across the sky in a west-to-south-east manner. ISS perhaps? It was pretty high up and took about 2-3 minutes to traverse the sky before I lost it.

Faboulous evening for gazing.  Tonight was spent just familiarizing myself with the night sky, and confirming that my gear was working okay...flashlight, clothing, etc...though I'd prefer to wear jean; sweats worked really well. Have to play things by ear for next weekend.

Light Pollution from Winnipeg, caused a severe brightening of the western sky.

First and foremost...before even really starting...saw a shooting star streak across the sky in a north-west to south path which lasted about a second, though visually the trail was about 3-4 moon widths long. Very pretty...

Secondly, finally got to see Jupiter...if I had gotten outside about 5-10 minutes later, it would have been below the tree line; as it stood, it was just inside the tree line, but wholly visible, as it hadn't yet set...they weren't kidding...it's the brightest thing in the sky...binos didn't have enough magnification to see anything, but it didn't have a color that stood out...hopefully I can get a telescope (or borrow one) and get a better view.

Basically my tour was in a north-east-south-west direction. Using my flashlight and a starchart from orion's site...I did the grand tour, and marked off what I saw on the starchart using dry-erase markers.

Big Dipper (including snout of Ursa Major)...pointer stars to Polaris and found Ursa Minor...found Cepheus and Cassepoeia. Next I re-located Pegasus' diamond, and proceeded to trace out the entire constellation. Next, I looked for a located M31, and realized that it could actually be seen with the naked eye. From there located the Great Triangle and proceeded to locate/identify the three constellations that denoted, Aquila, Cygnus and Lyra. Spent some time locating/identifying Aquarius and Capricornus (but didn't remember to id it during my later review). Next I realized that I could see most of the Teacup, but not enough to see the true shape (really just an academic exercise). Shifted my attention back to the Big Dipper, and using the ‘pointer' (arc to Arcturus), found, realized that the constellation of Bootes, really is easier to find that I thought, which inevitably led me to Corona Borealis. Next headed back to Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, and located Draco. Then using the star chart, traced out Hercules, and came to realize that he's really not that hard to locate, especially when you use legend to help out (i.e. Draco and Hercules being related in Greek Mythology). Before wrapping up for an evening review, proceed to identify the better part of Pisces, though the bottom 3 stars in the constellation were below the tree line. Using the twin trails of Pegasus, was able to locate Triangulum and Aries. Lastly, with more help from the star chart, located/identified Perseus.

Finally, I should note that the Milky Way was clearly visible from the north-eastern Treeline right through the south-western Treeline.

Shifting clouds made observing very frustrating. Whenever I managed to get a fix on something the clouds would block it out... oh well...guess that's part and parcel with the hobby.

I did however learn a couple of things...first I've learned to get dressed better. Particularly my legs and my ears. My new hoodie is heavy enough to keep my upper body warm with a tshirt underneath.  Also realized that my red flashlight might be too bright, because stars kept disappearing, but that might have been the result of the clouds.  I'll need to wait and see.  Lastly, switching between glasses on and glasses off causes me focusing issues/concerns; Need to consider wearing contacts when observing.

Took Arianna to the planetarium today. No observing was performed.

Used Bushnell 8x50 binos; Night Sky familiarization session. Also specific point to identify M31 (andromeda)

Also intended to re-locate yesterday's pattern, and see if I could identify enough points in the sky to identify it on a start chart.

Made a specific point of going out before moon rise. Started off with locating (again)
-the big dipper and the little dipper (tough with the light skies and cloud cover).
-casseopeia (seemed overly bright compared to the rest of the night sky)
-observed most of draco (partly masked by the clouds)
-observed Cepheus

Due to the tree line's close proximity, I moved in front of the barn (about 100 yards east), and made a specific point of looking for Pegasus's main ‘diamond' pattern. Per the assistance of some previous research on www.earthsky.org/skywatching, I followed their instructions to the "Great Square". A very tough task considering that the bottom ‘point' (aka home base using the baseball diamond analogy) was blocked by the clouds. Regardless, I was successful in locating the of the 4 stars, including Alpheratz, which in turn allowed my to locate Mirach , and then Mu Andromedae. Once that was done, it was an easy task (relative) to join the two stars, and continue to the fuzzy spot, straight up from Mu Andromedae the same distance it is from Mirach.

Although using the binos allows for a less than spectacular view of Andromeda, the very fact that I found something in the sky, not normally visible with the naked eye is an awesome feeling. Within the binos, andromeda was perhaps the size of a dime, in a circle the size of a basketball/soccerball, but what excitement!!!

It'll be really cool to get hold of a telescope with better aperture to get a better look at M31, maybe even get a photo of it...

Once finished, I took a quick walk to the driveway (about 400 yard west) because the clouds had moved, and took a good look at the Big Dipper. It was about this time that the moon started to rise.

Spent about 10 minutes watching the rising moon, and saw the "man in moon". Almost looked like a lady/woman with longish hair

Before finishing up for the night, I decided to relocate the pattern Jan had discovered last night. After looking for at the 3-star "helper pattern", for about 10 minutes, and downloading Cartes du Ciel, I've concluded that it is I've concluded these 3 stars are ALSHAIN, ALTAIR and TARAZED, which are the beta, alpha and gamma stars in the constellation AQUILA.

The pattern we saw last night, is about halfway between the direct path between ALTAIR and VEGA the two brightest stars in that particular region of space. Using cartes des ceils, the pattern falls directly in blue overlay of CR399. A quick google of CR399, reveals that this is known as "Brocchi's Cluster" or as the asterism of the "COATHANGER". Granted, using terrestrial binoculars, the coathanger appears upside down, but still pretty cool. If I ever get a telescope that I can connect to a camera, I'll make a point of photographing this for an ongoing collection.