06.45 GMT clear sky for first time in a week, Venus shining very bright but by the time I got outside with the scope, clouded over!

20.45 GMT clear again to the south, got the scope out and took a quick look at Saturn, still near the Beehive cluster also known as Praesaepe or M44 in Messiers catalogue. M44 is a 4th magnitude open cluster 550 light years away from us and is 30 light years wide.

Orion Neb quite clear and lower in the sky is Sirius, but Sirius is much higher now (at this hour) than previous obs.

Decided to switch location to the south of the house to see if I can see any of the open clusters in this region of the sky after spotting one of them (without id).

Five minutes later and the cloud had moved in but not before I spotted a new (to me) coloured double. A check with my maps suggests the main star is Puppis 7, which is 1350 light years away!

Looks like that's it for tonight.