I just returned from two nights under the magnitude 7+ skies of Portal, AZ and made some wonderful visual observations...including an observation of the extragalactic globular cluster G1 in the Andromeda Galaxy. The skies were beautifully transparent and clear and comet Garradd showed a long tail with a few streamers. I observed about a half dozen planetary nebula within Aquarius, as well as many other objects I posted a brief report and some sketches on my blog at: http://lostpleiadobservatory.blogspot.com/2011/10/near-and-far.html Best, Alan -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.