I have been traveling a lot lately and saw some interesting things.
First stop was New York City where Rebecca and I went to the American Museum of Natural History. The new Rose Center is stunning, although we didn't have time to see it all. It's a must see for anyone interested in Astronomy. The new planetarium is also very impressive, as others have reported, but the current show is only about 20 minutes long. The highlights for me were being taken into and through M42 and seeing the layout of galaxies both Locally and on a larger scale -- the threads, walls and bubbles of galaxies we read about were really brought forth well. The rest of the museum ain't bad either.
On the flight back to Cali I had a south facing window seat. There was a bright star visible when we reached cruising altitude, presumably Fomalhaut. Over the next two or three hours it seemed to be virtually stationary as the plane (which arrived early due to favorable condidtions) tried to keep up with the earth's rotation. Since the star was near culmination there was little change in altitude and the change in azimuth was perhaps masked by a northward curve in the planes path as we neared California. It was interesting to see a star stay put like this and a good reminder that all of our deep sky observations are affected by our time zone.
Back here I went to Fort Ross overnight last Thursday with an elementary school group. It cleared up around 9:00 and I was able to show the gas giants and Pleiades through my 9.25 inch scope and Rebecca's reflector to the usual oohs, aahs and "cool!"s. Our group of pretend militia was on night watch from 2:00 to 3:30. It was completely clear and very dark by then with only a trace of skyglow to the south from Bodega Bay or Jenner. I didn't see any evidence of light from Santa Rosa. The winter Milky Way was completely defined and clear. Fort Ross is right on the ocean but its elevated enough to be away from the spray and direct moisture. I was set up right inside the sally-port. Unfortunately dew did arrive and true to our historical period I was not using electrical aid to fight it so my late night viewing came to a premature halt.