My observing report from a surprisingly cold and blustery 2015 Winter Star Party has been published by the Webb Deep Sky Society.  I had flown from the UK to the Florida Keys looking forward to observing the southern skies from a palm tree studded beach.  The weather had different ideas.  A cold front with cloud, rain and a bitter wind limited observing to a few days at either end.  I had gone out expecting tropical conditions and ended up buying and borrowing additional clothing to keep warm.  As expected, when it was clear the skies were fantastic and I ticked off a variety of objects in instruments up to 16″ aperture.  A full report is here: link.

 

 

 

Highlights included eta Carina nebula and omega Centauri in a 16″ dobsonian and the interesting NGC 2731-2, a bipolar planetary nebula.  I observed NGC 2731-2 back at home with the 14″ and made the sketch above.