Some late summer doubles

It's pretty bright out tonight with the moon just past full but it's also clear for a change after several days of clouds, including the remnants of hurricane Ike. I decided to grab the clear sky while I could, moon and all and checked out some doubles. I found Eps Lyr e. asily and split the double with my 9x50 RACI but could not resolve the double double even with my 10mm and 2x barlow. Maybe when there is less light and haze. I next went after Gamma Delphini but had a devil of time finding Delphinus! I could see it ok with my 7x50 binocs but it kept eluding my reflex sight and RACI. I finally gave up trying to hit almost invisible Delphinus with my reflex sight and just star hopped from Altair instead. Bingo, right on target and I was able to split Gamma Delphini just fine. It appeared somewhat light orange and blue to me.
I'll have to try again in a couple of nights when the moon rises later. The skies are supposed to stay clear for a few more days. Right now it's 57 degrees and 82% humidity.

Moon and Jupiter

It cleared off today so I began setting up for a nice cool clear evening of observing just after sunset. It was fairly bright out so the only thing visible was the moon. Jupiter was close by and sure enough, it was visible along with the moon in both 7x50 binocs and my 9x50 finder. I put in an eyepiece to see which of Jupiter's moons were visible and was able to snag four, all on the same side of Jupiter. Ganymede was about a Jupiter's width away, followed by Io another width. Europa was four widths while Calisto was eight. There was a clear small black spot visible on the face of Jupiter along with two reddish bands. The black spot was about 1/4 of the way toward the center of Jupiter on the same side as the four moons. By 2100 it had rotated nearly to the edge nearest the four moons. I believe this dot may have been the shadow of Ganymede on Jupiter. Ganymede was moving fast and by 2200 it had moved noticably closer to Io.
While I was at it I checked out the Ring Nebula in Lyra. It was almost on the zenith so hard to find with my dob but it was there, just not quite as bright as it was earlier in the year when it was lower. I tried to resolve some doubles in Cas but no luck. I was able to find Neptune though, with the aid of my setting circles. They worked pretty good and I was able to find stuff in an area of the sky that was pretty well washed out by the moon. Neptune was fairly bright but not very impressive. I convinced myself that there was a small ball at 200x. The atmosphere was not very steady tonight though so high power didn't work very well.
Finally I checked out the moon. Pretty but I almost blinded myself it was so bright!