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Sometime after the rain and thunder stopped (for the most part) in my area, I decided to check out the stars. I went out back in my lanai around 10 o'clock (the front of my house is too well lit to see anything.)and started poking around. With my star map in hand, I set out to locate the weekly constellations, Sagittarius, Scorpio, and Corona Borealis. At first, I was overwhelmed, as I didn't know where to look. The storm had subsided in the area, and I think it was moving north west. Besides tiny, faint clouds and the occasional flash of lightning form the horizon, I think the sky was mostly clear. I spent about 20 minutes watching random parts of the sky, beginning northwards, then looking east and west. To me, they looked like random clusters and bunches of stars, making no real shape. I vainly tried to connect the dots into some vaguely familiar shape. Then I turned southwards, and I saw I comparativly dense packet of stars. My first impression of the pattern was that it resembled some dragon you see in the table mats of Chinese food restaurants. I looked at my star map, and concluded it wasnt Draco. Switching from looking to a piece of paper to the night sky was frustrating, since I either had no light, or, if i turned the lights on, too much. I decided to do my best and draw what I saw. I compared my drawings to the map, and saw immediatly that I was looking at Scorpius and Sagittarius. I also think I got the top of Corona Australis. I didn't realize that they would be so close together. I would have liked to have seen more, but my view was obstructed by my neighbor's plants and trees. I spent about a half hour out there. Call me stupid, but I couldn't find the moon. Also of interesting note, as I was drawing the stars, I saw a metoer, faint with a good sized tail, cut through Scorpius' tail and through Sagittarius's kettle.Over the weekend, or on my next observation, I definetly plan on going somewhere more open.