Five moons and one gas giant in the same FOV

[Swoop1]

For someone new to the activity, and therefore probably easily impressed, the sight of Jupiter and the 4 galilean moons plus THE moon all visible at the same time in the eyepiece was absolutely fantastic. I had been given the heads up about the proximity of Jupiter and Luna tonight whilst at the Societies meeting on Friday. Seeing clear skies tonight made me a happy bunny indeed.

I deployed the scope at about 21:00 and, after cooling time, started with the 40mm EP to get the view I sought. Despite the discomfort of the bright moon I was able to orientate the scope so that the moon was to the low right of the FOV with Jupiter and its moons to the upper left. I spent a good few minutes enjoying they view. I then decided to up the magnification and do a bit of flitting between the two targets. For the majority of my session, seeing was quite stable and I was able to resolve the GRS. Transparency was affected occasionally by high thin cloud but, to be honest, this cloud had me cursing the lack of imaging set up as, when it drifted across the face of the moon, the halo and colouring was gorgeous. Mackerel skies in front of the moon was a sight to behold.

When observing the moon, the clarity was superb. I'm still as lost as a penguin in the sahara when it comes to identifying stuff but there was a lot to keep me riveted as I adjusted Alt and Az across the surface. Tiny specks of light as the sun caught the peak of mountains mainly still in shadow, one crater where a domed floor seems apparent as there is a crescent of shadow against the crater wall opposite the sunward rim of the crater. A very satisfying session indeed.

[DRT]

An amazing sight indeed. It's not often we can see all of that in the eyepiece and I'm very pleased that the clouds decided to at least partially clear to allow us to enjoy it  

[DRT]

I've just been out to have another look, this time with my 15x50 IS bins - an absolutely stunning view  

[elliot]

20x80 Celestron bins....gorgeous. Really pretty sight.  

This is the first time I've noticed Callisto being different from the others. It was dimmer and seemed a different colour, more brown rather than a white light. I wouldn't have expected to see colour at all through binoculars.

 

[Galen Gilmore]

Here in the states, the moon is too far away from Jupiter to see both in a telescope FOV. Still pleasing to the eye though 

[Stu]

5 hours ago, elliot said:

20x80 Celestron bins....gorgeous. Really pretty sight.  

This is the first time I've noticed Callisto being different from the others. It was dimmer and seemed a different colour, more brown rather than a white light. I wouldn't have expected to see colour at all through binoculars.

 

Excellent to have seen that in the binoculars. I've only noticed the difference before when it is transitting and appears more like a shadow transit than bright like the others.

[cotterless45]

Anyone stuck with identifying lunar features can do no better than to get the "Moon globe" app. Not only do you get options to mirror reverse/ south up, to suit your scope view, but there is a handy drop down finder menu, hurrah !Nick.

[DeepSkyBagger]

If that's your view, Nick, then you're a long way from Derbyshire! 

[Scosmico]

Beautiful view! 

Five moons from two planets.

I loved to see the scale of the jovian system compared to the moon.

I used a 3" refractor + 28mm 68 Maxvision.