March 14th 2007, 10:35pm in backyard in Lubbock

<p>M65 is what I'm trying to see it's at about 45 degrees up from the horizon, its very faint with averted vision. The backyard is not a great place to observe unless looking straight up. Cloud bands have moved in after about 30minutes. Started looking at some double stars. Sigma 1258 UMa easy to see split in 10mm Lanthunum on C8. Iota Uma really bright can't see companion, too big a difference in mag. Sigma 1340 Uma 6.2" apart, easy split, both look kind of white, the small one looks more blue. Sigma 1428, yellow white and silver white stars, 2.8" sep. Because these two stars are about the same mag. 8.0, 8.4 it's easier to split. Sigma 229 Uma, .7" apart, can't really tell, a small bulge looks like its coming out of a star but it could just as easily be a focus issue. Xi UMa 4.3 and 4.8 mag, sep 1.7" can clearly see this seperation, both stars look yellow. Looks like anything under 2.0" sep is hard for me to split unless the stars are close in mag. M66 in 14mm averted visions, can see bulge and streaks coming out from the bulge. M65 not as easy to see as M66, looks flatter than M66, probably because I'm seeing less. Fell over and knocked the telescope tripod, not hurt, clouds still an issue and I'm too tired to re-calibrate, 11:43pm.