Two viewing sessions in 12 hours.

[maw lod qan]

Went out to check on the Moon at sunset yesterday, then saw how near it was to Venus.

After taking a few widefields of the two together, I opened the roof to view with my 8" dob.

A cold front went through the night before leaving the air cold and clear, just a slight breeze.

As soon as I looked at the Moon I saw there was a star right at the edge about to be occulated. I stepped back to give my grandson a turn at the eyepiece. He was amazed with the detail using a 2x barlow and 23mm.

When I moved back to the eyepiece, the star was there, then almost magically disappeared behind the moon! 

We viewed the Moon with the barlow and 10mm then turned to Venus. My grandson couldn't believe how instead of the brilliant star it appeared by eye, it was clearly a planet. Though there were no details, it's phase showed perfectly.

Early this morning, about 12 hours later I went out alone. The sky was beginning to lighten but the Sun was still below the horizon as I turned the telescope to Jupiter.

The equatorial bands were clear, the four large moons spread out two and two on opposite sides. Down to the East, Saturn had just cleared one of my tall Cyprus trees. It in the eyepiece its rings tilted hard with the visual right side high! I do enjoy Saturn anytime I can view it!

Losing dark sky rapidly to the rising Sun, I quickly turned to Mars. With it so distant, it was very small but brilliantly red. After just a few minutes, I could no longer see it with my naked eyes.

Not much actual time at the eyepiece, but in that short time I viewed four planets and five moons. If I had more time this morning I might have been able to tighten up on Saturn to get a couple of its moons.

[Stu]

Excellent stuff! I saw the star about to be occulted but had to carry out some fatherly duties just at the crucial moment! Glad you saw it, and lovely that your grandson was able to share it with you.

Nice to hear that the planets are starting to come back into view, haven't made the effort to get up to see them yet, good on you for getting up!