Early to Bed, Early to Rise

During the summer, astronomical darkness comes so late that if I think it might be clear that night, I go to bed shortly after dinner and wake up around 11PM or midnight to go out and observe. Sometimes the weather prediction is wrong and I wake up to cloudy skies. Sometimes I can go back to bed, especially if I've had several late nights at the telescope, and sometimes I stay up and catch up on emails or shows I've recorded on DVR. I keep checking, and if my luck is good the sky clears up and I can go out before dawn for a while.Eventually the short nights of sleep accumulate and catch up to me, and I crash in front of the TV around 9PM and stagger up to bed whenever a cat jumps on my head, chest or otherwise wakes me up.Last night was one of those crash in front of the TV nights. I made my way upstairs around midnight and slept like a stone, until about 4AM. I woke up and looked out the window to the east to see if the clouds had thinned. I could make out a few bright stars through the ...