Jupiter, 070703

[Astroman]

Took some time in the observatory Tuesday night, aminly to show Rosie how to find some other things with her scope, but I wanted to crank up the power on the 10" F/7 on Jupiter. Glad I did! There was a shadow transit of Io in progress. The moon was just past the meridian, with the shadow approaching the western limb. At 111x it showed smack in the middle of the North Equatorial Band, maybe just a bit north. Cranked up the power a bit, (180X), and more of the bands, belts and zones appeared. The North and South Polar Regions were easy, with the North and South Equatorial Belts quite plain now. The Equatorial Zone is, of course, between them and lighter. The North Temperate Belt is very thin and dark and shows well against the lighter bands above and below. The South Temperate Belt was not as easy, since it's only slightly lighter than the SEB. A little patience and concentration revealed all 13 named belts and zones eventually without resorting to a filter. I didn't see the GRS, and I don't think it was out, but I did manage some larger festoons in the NEB with the Barlow at 280X.

A lovely session, though short for me.

For reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jupiter_Belt_System.JPG

P.S. From Arizona, Jupiter is at 35º altitude at transit ~9:27pm local time.

[The Warthog]

Sounds like a wonderful session. I've had some pretty good views lately, but not that good.