Ok, it sounds impressive, but it's a little pathetic that it has taken me this long. I've had a 6" F5 Orion Europa telescope for a number of years. I don't use it a huge amount, I think that at least 2 of my lenses are scratched so I don't get the results I should.

The area I live in is on top of a hill, I'm in the middle of a modern (10 years old) housing estate, so we are packed in like sardines. This gives me fairly poor light for astronomy on the horizon (think other house lights and street lamps), but as you look farther up, it gets better.

It looked like it was going to be a wet evening, but cleared up nicely. Around 10:30 I went out and saw that Mars was on the rise, so I got the scope out to let it cool down. I've not had much luck with Mars in the past, but I managed to make out some colouration at the pole, which is the first time. I then had a look at the Pleiades [1] with the lowest magnification I have. It's quite stunning. Then I noticed that I could actually make out the Milky Way [2]. I've only lived in one other place where I been able to make it out, so I was most impressed, I didn't think it was that clear here. So I thought I'd try again for M101 [3], I've never found *any* deep sky object before (too lazy, never tried hard enough). Once again I failed on M101, so I thought I'd try for something easier. M31 [4] is large, even binoculars are supposed to be able to see this. I was very happy with myself when I found M31 tonight. I know it's supposed to be an easy target, but it's a first for me, and it looked just like the image in Stellarium [5]. Seeing the pictures is one thing, but seeing M31, with my own eyes, was just awe inspiring. It brings back the memories of when I first saw Saturn, it's rings and 4 of it's moons.