Io and Europa .

[cotterless45]

Wonderful shadow and moon show last night . Kick off at around 8 with shadows. At 10.30 the two moons were perfectly occulted just off the disc.

Swinging back at 11.15 the two had separated at a slight angle to the belts. What a beautiful sight. I kept returning to view between this and Orion.

Hardly the best clarity, not helped by gusts of wind. A Moon filter was quite handy, mostly at just below x120 the haze helped ,

Nick.

[Special K]

Sounds cool, Nick, and wish I'd set up for that. Last time out I used the moon filter on Jupiter as you mention and this is quite effective when there isn't a layer of cloud to filter out some of the glare. A naked view of Jupiter can be too bright!

[Qualia]

Sounds like a cracking evening, Nick and I can completely understand the idea of 'just' wanting to view Jupiter and Orion for the evening. There is something very calming and beautiful to watch the slow grace of shadow across Jupiter. And Orion? It must surely be one of the most beautiful constellations in the night sky. I wonder if anyone was out on Jupiter's surface last night, would have seen a total solar eclipse ? 

[stevend]

Excellent report. I could not see Jupiter until 2345 due to an oak tree so missed those highlights and spent most of my evening looking at Orion and nearby objects from Gemini and Taurus such as C50, M35 and the Pleiades. Conditions were excellent. After packing up I went back out with my 10x50s and could easily see eg Andromeda and the Garnet Star. All in all an excellent evenings viewing.

My only miss was I made an effort to try and find Lovejoy - not surprising, but no luck as yet from my viewpoint.

[Scooot]

It was a good night wasn't it. My best view of jupiter was at 80x but didn't see the moon action. I'll have to try the moon filter with it.

[Stu]

Great report Nick. I too missed the action because of a rather large oak tree. Caught them separated just off the limb after they separated.

Bet it was lovely to see

[cotterless45]

There's a large oak in the school a few doors away. It blocks the central view south. Luckily it doesn't hit the ecliptic, but anything lower goes through it. It's a very beautiful tree, full of birds. Just wish it was somewhere else !

Nick.

[John]

I have to wait a few hours before rising objects clear some large conifers so I missed these lovely events unfortunately.

Nice to read a good description of them though

Jupiter was just about to clear the conifers when the cloud cover arrived last night