All is not hopeless when the moon is close-by. Hopping from easily seen delta and gamma Cap to sigma & 58 Aqr with the 10x50 finder, was then able to sweep up Neptune noticeably paired with a contrasting orange star in the 76mm finder (x55). The planet's blue colour seemed quite accentuated against the moon-glow in the field of the D-K (the star being outside it here). Indeed the disk was comfortably contrasted in spite of the moon being little more than 4 deg. north. This sharp view was finally acheived after a long wait for the clearing of a strikingly moonlit 'mackerel sky' .
[David Gray: Spennymoor Co. Durham,United Kingdom]
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