The rising of the Crow

The last few nights have been clear after we returned to MidMO and I decided to squeeze some observing in between visits from Grandkids and visits to Mom and Dad. The ISS was due over at 8:32 this evening so I got everything set up before that: 8" dob, 7x50 binocs, warm clothes, charts, SW receiver (for WWV), comfy chair, etc. The temperature was comfortable when I started but dropped to 49 by quitting time after 'the crow' rose in the east. Saturn was also visible just north of Spica a few degrees but it was behind a *$#@ tree. Maybe later. Venus was also still up at 10:30 shining brightly in the West. I had read Alan Whitman's column in the April S&T on the Coma Cluster so I thought I'd visit that area tonight. UMa was high and cleared that 'other' nasty old tree so I thought I'd have a clear shot. I did and snagged M51 and its companion NGC5195 easily. The two galaxies made a consipicuous triangle with two 7th mag stars and made a nice sight in my 25mm ep with the 8". Next I moved over to M63, another galaxy that I had seen before but worth visiting again although it wasn't as bright as M51. Two nearby 9.8 and 9.5 mag stars were consipicuous in my 10 mm ep. M63 appeared somewhat elongated along a NE to SW line. Next I searched for Coma Berenices. The constellation's stars are dim but I was able to make out the fuzzy patch of stars making up Bere's hair and found what I thought was Beta CB as well as the pair of pairs bracketing the Coma Cluster. M3 and M53 are two nice globular clusters and it has been awhile since I've seen a good globular. I really like watching the little pinpricks of stars popping in and out of these interesting objects so I went after M53. I was able to find the right area with my 7x50's but when I switched to the dob's finder, it was behind the bird feeder. Rats, foiled again. I quickly switched to M3 and found it lurking alone in a sparsely populated area. It took awhile to find but my patience paid off. Its amazing how fast time flies when I'm listening to WWV while observing! The minutes just flew by. And, speaking of flying, the ISS appeared on schedule and I was even able to track it with my 8". I didn't see any detail but was able to keep up with it (barely). Mars was also calling my name so just before quitting, I turned the 8" on the red planet. It was big but too bright to make out any surface detail. A filter may have helped but it was getting late. I noticed Corvus starting to climb in the SE and decided it was time to quit. We head off to Paducah KY tomorrow after taking the car into King Auto Glass for a new windshield (south texas struck again) so the day will be starting early.
I should mention that last night we also did some observing with the grandkids (Issac and Joseph, Stacie and Linda's two boys) but no scope, just eyeballs and a green laser. I think the boys were more interested in the 'light saber' but we enjoyed looking at Orion and his two dogs. The star of the show though was Venus paired with the Pleades in my 7x50 binoc field. Quite a pretty sight. The shadow cast by Venus was also rather spectacular.