💾 Archived View for koyu.space › mrael2_obsv › sessions › 2016 › 2016-03-05.gmi captured on 2023-04-19 at 23:38:26. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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Date: 2016-03-05
Object: Jupiter
eyepiece: 9 mm (139x)
Constellation: Leo
Time: 8:45 PM
Seeing: II or III initially due to a mirror not properly cooled but improving to I or II 30 minutes later
Transparency: 7
At 8:45 PM, 3 satellites visible:
- Callisto far to the west
- Io slightly to the east
- Europa very close to Jupiter at its western edge
Seeing improved by 9:15 PM, and at 9:36 PM, I saw Europa disappear behind Jupiter!
Time: 9:00 PM
Object: M42 and M43
Eyepiece: 9 mm (139x)
The Trapezium was clearly visible during the time between poor seeing (II or III) and the improvement to I or II.
Object: M81 and M82
Eyepiece: 30 mm (42x)
The pair of galaxies loked good in my first viewing of them for the year. Transparency being as exceptional as it was, I could see their fuzziness with the naked eye! This made pointing the scope to their location very easy with the Telrad.
Object: M51
Eyepiece: 9 mm (139x)
Hints of spiral structure were visible tonight.
Time: 10:25 PM
Object: Jupiter
At 10:25 PM, I saw the first hint of Ganymede reappear from behind Jupiter! It took a full ten minutes to emerge fully at 10:35 PM. Io and Ganymede were very close to each other at the eastern edge of Jupiter with Io at the north equatorial belt and Ganymede emerging from the south equatorial belt.
Time: 11:03 PM
Object: Jupiter
(277x)
At about 11:03 PM, I saw Io begin its transit of Jupiter. I did not see Io's shadow begin its transit before Io itself (as predicted), but I saw a distinct shadow of Io on Jupiter as the transit was underway at 11:10 PM.
Since the date is so very close to Jupiter's opposition, that probably explains why Io and its shadow are so close to each other.
This was a great first observation of action with Jupiter's moons.
Temperatures were very cold with long underwear and heavy gloves required (along with a warm hat).
Sky and Telescope magazine gave me all the moon information.