Jupiter last night, 31/07

[The Warthog]

I set up last night specifically to look at Jupiter, and was not disappointed by the sight. Jupiter is a little low in the sky, being where it is in the ecliptic, and I was immediately greeted by a blank buff-coloured disk, with satellits. There were two dim stars below and to the right of the planet, and I at first thought there was another star to the left of Jupiter, but soon realized that one was Ganymede.

Over an hour or so, I waited for the moments of stillness and clarity that occur from time to time, and was clearly able to see all the bands at one time or another, but no festoons or GRS. I thought I detected a thickening in the SEB that may have been the GRS, but I couldn't be sure. I also was thinking there was a shadow transit going on, but when I checked, the places I thought I might be seeing a shadow were in the wrong place. When I checked where the shadow of Europa was, I was unable to confirm seeing it.

My scope is in pretty good collimation. I am going to tweak it a little this afternoon, and then put my refractor on the mount for another look at Jupiter tonight, Bod willin' an' the sky don't fall.

[Sam]

Nice report WH! Jupiter is quite an amazing planet to observe, but, like you say with it being so low it takes quite a bit of patience.

Sam

[lunator]

WH

Nice report. Jupiter is always interesting to watch

I used my 10x50's last night to show some friends the Satellites of Jupiter.