Where abouts are you Malcolm? I'm in Yeovil, Somerset.
Was quite good observing last night until the cloud very rapidly rolled in, around 23:10 if memory serves me.
Saw 4 satellites, 1 was in the region of Lyra, which was only visible through my scope, fluke or what it happened to be pointing the right way (I was trying to find M27). The ISS flew over nicely at 22:38. One day I'll shove my scope on the path it's going to take to see if I can make out any detail, hard part is getting it's exact path, and getting my scope pointing the right way!
Also saw a couple of satellites going from south to north, which usually means they're military/spy satellites.
Did spot M27 in the end, once the sky had darkened so I could positively identify it, and then found good ol' M13, which normally takes me ages to find, I'm useless at finding stuff when there isn't a bright star right next to it
I always have trouble with M13, I first found the crab (M1) easier then M13
Was gonna go on a hunt for Uranus, but the cloud rolled on in.
Any satellite observation is quite fun for those who don't do it,
http://www.heavens-above.com has all the prediction stuff, Iridium flares are also good ones to look out for! The Sun is a very nice object to observe and can be done cheaply as Malcolm says, very interesting there is such large activity since it's almost mid-cycle now. Grab a pair of binos and have a peek at Jupiter, you can then check the satellites what you see with Celestia. Off out of your chairs, you want to feel pain the in your neck from looking upwards for hours on end.
! but yes I am active.
