Well, conditions were not awful tonight, or I just wanted to be out I suppose. I spent time trying to find M33 and even with a narrowband filter I'm either going to need help or I need to get to a darker sight than my house (which is about 6.3 limiting magnitude for me). I also took a gamble and though I found the location for M74, I could not get it. I thought that with averted vision I could possibly see it, but that just might be me doing the Little Engine That Could (I think I can . . . ). I then went over and bagged M77 and took about an hour to record observations and sketch it at 21mm, observed it with my 13mm Stratus and then focused and sketched at 9mm. After M77 I went to M44 and then to M67. I sketched both using the 21mm Stratus. By this time though I had tried on two items, and bagged 3 with sketches and observations, my dob was frosting over pretty good, as was the rest of my equipment and though I had hoped to spend sometime sketching M42, and bagging three more Messier objects tonight, alas, that will have to wait. I decided to pack it in and my son and I took in the dob and then after we had everything but my stool and my observing table, when I saw coming out of the west and heading east a very bright orange meteor (time was approx. 12:10a.m. on December 31, 2008). I'm not the best at estimating but it was between the size of Venus and Jupiter as it came in and had a tail going back at least 10 degrees (estimate using my fist). It flew over my house and then broke apart just to the east of my home. My son was pretty stoked as it was his first meteor that close and that bright. Guess I need to show him a comet one day. Just in case anyone can't tell my goal is to complete the Messier badge for next year's award and I'm doing pretty good with 45 items bagged. I also do hit some of the more interesting NCG's and will probably try to get the Hershel 400 after that. It will take me longer as I usually spend 45 minutes to over an hour per item as I record my observation, make sketches or whatever else. Nice to have a good night. I need to look into making a dew heater for my dob's I guess. I saw one over at Sky and Telescope that didn't seem to much to make. Anyone have experience with that or recommend another one that I can make (or purchase if the CFO/CEO of the house approves the amount)?