Great Night - Venus, Jupiter, Crab and others

Finally a clear night, played with the webcam and got some good observations in. Very cold, around 30* F.
 Started with Venus and the Lifecam, I have added a 1.25" eyepiece barrel and used the Celestron UHC/LP filter to get the brightness of Venus down, sort of worked, but I forgot to take it out for the Jupiter captures.
 For visual I used the 10" Dob to view M42, M45, The Hayedes, NGC 1807 and 1817 (2 open clusters close together in Taurus and the M1, the Crab Nebula (Dim oblong patch of nebulosity).  Used 7x42 binoculars to view M45 (no nebulosity visible but did see a weird line of 5 stars at the bottom), M42 as a wisp like a little tornado, 3 open clusters in Auriga - M36 (almost mottled), M37 (just a small fuzz patch) and M38 ( more dim, non stellar appearance)
 Used the 10" SCT and digital camera to get 5 30 second exposures of the Crab Nebula, came out just about like I saw through the eyepiece of the Dob.

Microsoft Lifecam VX-1000 webcam modded for Astrophotography

Finally, my 1st webcam to use with a telescope. My co-worker Karen gave me their old webcam, she was going to donate it or throw it out. It's a 640x480color webcam and there are drivers for Win & 64 bit...yay!
 So the mod is super easy, just unscrew the screws, pop it apart, unscrew the lens, put it all back together. Unfortunately the IR filter is glued to the back of the lens, so it had to go, I broke it trying to get it out. The focus ring on the webcam is almost exactly 1.25", so it fits right in the focuser and is not an issue.
 This is the 1st light with it, about 600 frames taken and used the best 120 in registax.
Gassendi Crater is 68 miles wide and on the edge of Mare Humorum, the central peak was an alternative landing site for an Apollo mission. It is so named for Frenchman Pierre Gassendi, the 1st person to watch a planet transit the sun in 1631.