Bought the September issue of the Sky at Night magazine this morning, so after reading that Neptune and Uranus are on view this month I decided to see what I could see.

So just as twighlight fell I was outside to take a look.

Got my first view in a while of Jupiter as it sank in the west, due to the low altitude I didn't see much other than the main moons.

The moon was bright to my south, which is where I was looking for the aforementioned planets, thanks to the moon and scattered cloud tonight's mission was not accomplished, my southern horizon is not good at the best of times. But I have a few weeks yet to see them, these will be a first for me, never saw them as a child like I did with Jupiter and Saturn, they are like old friends to me now!

Anyway, did get to see Lyra and Cygnus again along with Cassiopeia and of course Ursa Major. Albireo was a nice sight as always and the monocular gave a nice view of the doubles in Lyra but not of course the double double.

Earlier in the week I decided to upgrade the Meade ETX80 with something a tad more serious. This time I am refusing to be seduced by GOTO features and concentrate on aperture and a serious mount. After some advice I've decided to go for a Skywatcher 200mm Newt on a heavyduty motorised mount. At a price of £539 this looks like a bargain after I paid £300 for the Meade.

I was almost in the car on a 65 mile trip to the shop to buy this yesterday when I decided to check availability, that turned out to be a good call, the mount is out of stock until the end of the week. So hopefully this time next week I'll be the proud owner of a new scope. I will try to sell the Meade on eBay as I don't have the space to keep it as well as the new kit.