I had a few chances to view Mars as it reached closest approach this month. I only noticed any surface detail on two occasions but very subtle detail at that. I did manage my first ever image of Mars that is now in the planets gallery. The Pleiades have looked stunning through the 250px likewise the Andromeda galaxy has been fantastic. A couple new objects have been hunted down, namely the Blue Snowball and The Catseye Nebula. The first showing as a bright, small circle with some bluish colour to it. The Cat's Eye was surprisingly small and confirmed my fears that it would be too small to attempt a DSLR photo on. Was nice to have found it though.

The Orion Nebula has escaped me this month mainly due to my terrible South Eastern horizon at my location. January should better suit when the hunter moves slightly higher and round to the South in the evenings

One highlight of this month was capturing a fantastic image of the ISS via webcam through my dobsonian (see main page). The best highlight of the month is getting the new EQ6 Synscan GOTO mount which will improve my photographic opportunities greatly and vastly improve my viewing experiences with the 250px