Unexpected opportunity

[Dantooine]

Looked out the window and some gaps in cloud showed planets. Excited I set up ASAP out facing south. (It’s been a while). 
 

Put a moon filter on my 4.7E and aimed at Jupiter. I thought I had a bit of dust on the lens but carried on anyway.  
 

I could only see 2 moons. The longer I looked it became evident That the dust was black and realised as steady views came it was one of the moons moving across the disc. First time I have seen this so very pleased. Also almost touching the planet to the left I could see another moon appears the longer I look.

Moved to Saturn and things were a little wobbly but once it settled I could see the planets shadow on the back of the rings.

Mars was now above my hedge and at 150x I could see dark patches on the lower half and brightness at the top so maybe I was seeing ice at last. Very small but very nice to see at random opportunity. All in all well worth the dashing setup. I can go to bed happy with what I have seen. 

[Stu]

32 minutes ago, Dantooine said:

Looked out the window and some gaps in cloud showed planets. Excited I set up ASAP out facing south. (It’s been a while). 
 

Put a moon filter on my 4.7E and aimed at Jupiter. I thought I had a bit of dust on the lens but carried on anyway.  
 

I could only see 2 moons. The longer I looked it became evident That the dust was black and realised as steady views came it was one of the moons moving across the disc. First time I have seen this so very pleased. Also almost touching the planet to the left I could see another moon appears the longer I look.

Moved to Saturn and things were a little wobbly but once it settled I could see the planets shadow on the back of the rings.

Mars was now above my hedge and at 150x I could see dark patches on the lower half and brightness at the top so maybe I was seeing ice at last. Very small but very nice to see at random opportunity. All in all well worth the dashing setup. I can go to bed happy with what I have seen. 

Most likely to have been a shadow transit of Io that you saw; they are jet black and generally much easier to see than the Moons transiting. You would have seen Io appearing after transiting, plus Europa and Callisto.

It looks like GRS was well positioned too, did you spot that?

Nice observations you’ve had tonight! 👍👍

 

[Nair al Saif]

Congrats! 

[Dantooine]

9 hours ago, Stu said:

Most likely to have been a shadow transit of Io that you saw; they are jet black and generally much easier to see than the Moons transiting. You would have seen Io appearing after transiting, plus Europa and Callisto.

It looks like GRS was well positioned too, did you spot that?

Nice observations you’ve had tonight! 👍👍

 

Thank you for the information. When I think about it you make sense, I was seeing L/R reversed so the close to planet moon black spot about 2 thirds in would line up with where the sun was.