Jupiter May 3, 2005

We had passing clouds early in the evening which hindered viewing most of Io's transit. When it was clear though, the seeing was pretty good. At about 0240Z, 4 May, Io was clearly visible as a bright, white ball near the edge of the NEB with the shadow about 3 moon-distances away. There was also a white rift on the south side of the NEB with a dark reddish feature (barge maybe?) touching the rift. Has anyone else seen this?

Thanks
Bill

I was out last night playing with a 8 inch dobs I just Bartelized and was getting used to the software. The night started very clear with decent seeing at dusk. I initialized my scope on Pollux and then slew over to Castor to check out the seeing on this double star. Looked pretty decent. I then stuck my 3.5X barlow and my 6.5mm eyepiece in to dial in the guide drift. This gave me about 675X mag and I set the guide correction. I started with Saturn At 60x and 100x very pleasing. It was already going down behind a tree so I went to Jupiter and only saw three moons. I figured one was occulted. I also had clouds passing in and out last night but I was able to see the transit of Io very clearly. First Jovian transit shadow veiwed for me and at several time the seeing was so good you would get lost in the dark circle. Much sharper than the circle formed by the glowing moons in my scope. I also saw the dark reddish feature on the NEB. I didn't know what it was and though at first it might be the GRS but it was to small and not in the right location. I also saw what I think was a satelite dart across the FOV. It was smaller than the smallest moon and moving very fast. I was observing at 225x and 350x mostly.


Very pleasing evening even though it was short. I set up at about 00:45 UT and had to pack up for the night at 04:15.

This was my longest session ever and it was amasing how fast Jupiters moons are orbiting.


Clear skys predicted the next three nights with temps around 55. ;0)


Dave

Last night I was out looking with my 6" achro and watched the transit of Io,it was so cool, the shadow was about 40min. behind the disk,the shadow was like a dark spot drilled into Jupiter vary dark and well defined, Io was easy to see against the Neb,much easier than when it transits the EZ, the red barge in the neb was also very cool, there was a notch or semibrake in the neb and blue festoons flowing from around the barge very cool, just like a minature grs,that was my first thought when observing it, i made a sketch, I'll post it soon.Jupiter is really cool and my favorite thing to watch in real time in the sky.