Amazingly, it's clear for tonight's Mars-Neptune conjunction. I started observing at 5 pm using my portable 76 mm refractor. It was interesting to see both planets in the same field and to note the colour contrast.

Not a regular Jupiter observer, I did notice that last evening (2018 May 29) there was a transit of the GRS predicted. I observed it with my 4-inch refractor at x136 (6 mm ortho or Televue 3 to 6 mm zoom at 6 mm), under very steady conditions. I was impressed by how intensely coloured the GRS spot was. Andrew Ciavarella made the same comment in his observation of the same GRS transit on his Members Page.

Lots of meteor activity last night and it was clear all night long for once (Aug 12-13). The two meteor video cameras captured a total of 166 meteors between dusk and dawn - in some frames there were two meteors! Of these, 54 are identified as Perseids. All these were captured whilst doing other things, such as observing in the observatory, where I would have been oblivious to the events outside were it not for a "ping" from the PC as it detects a meteor. I did go outside for a while to gaze at the sky when I was lucky enough to see a few meteors.

A very clear night last night (Nov 25/26), with a thick frost and -4 deg C in the observatory.

Found a dwarf nova in outburst; it's called SDSS J081610.84+453010.2 (it was discovered as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, hence SDSS). This is a dwarf nova on the Variable Star Section's Recurrent Objects Programme, a list of cataclysmic variables that undergo rare outbursts and hence are interesting to monitor in case they do. See the list here: http://www.britastro.org/vss/rop.html

With the Sun being so low these November days, coupled with variable weather conditions, grabbing a view of our local star is proving a bit tricky at the moment. Fortunately it's been clear around noon both today and yesterday, so I managed to get some decent H_alpha views. I have been rewarded by there being a few prominences and filaments on view.

Attended a bonfire night event yesterday where many families were present. As it was clear, I ended giving an impromptu sky tour. You never know when the opportunity will arise to engage the public in astronomy!