Tiny Black Spot Transits Moon; Gibbous Venus

[cloudsweeper]

6.30am, old friend Orion standing proud in the south, so out with the (cooled) ED80 Apo Triplet on the Skytee II (see pic).  Left it a bit late, since Orion soon faded away!

But east of south, at 55deg, was the waning crescent Moon.  x120 - beautiful sharp view of ridges in Sinus (bay) Iridum and in Mare Imbrium further south.  Stable; no CA.  Still further south, lay the Carpathian Mountains, with tight, jagged shadows of a line of close peaks, also several small craters.  In the largest, Tobias Mayer, I discerned a very faint peak (using a Barlowed 5mm for x192, about the max the 'scope can deliver).

By 6.55, only Venus and the Moon were visible naked eye.  Away from the terminator to the west, Schroter's Valley (rille) stood out as a distinct "Y", with a shadow to its SW branch.

Looking back to the Carpathian Mountains, I then noticed a tiny black spot moving steadily westwards, taking about 20 seconds to reach the limb and disappear.  

I finished at 7.25 with a look at Venus, x80, sharp, noticeably gibbous, with some red and blue false colour.  That effect disappeared on dropping the mag to x40.

Great start to the day!

Doug.

Edited October 12, 2020 by cloudsweeper

[Spacecake2]

Probably just a satellite. 😀

Edited October 11, 2020 by Spacecake2

[Spacecake2]

A few days ago I saw about 13 bright spots (bright as stars!) moving for 15 seconds in a straight line south. 😐

[cloudsweeper]

9 minutes ago, Spacecake2 said:

Probably just a satellite. 😀

Yes, I thought so too - although I wondered about how close it would need to be to cast a well-defined shadow.........

Doug.

 

[cloudsweeper]

Doooh - what was I thinking?  It was clearly not a shadow, just a satellite blocking out some of the Moon's light.

(I was confusing what I saw with the effect of Jupiter's moons casting shadows on the planet.)

Doug.

[Fozzie]

I've seen similar to this, was just about to swap out the EP for a camera, when i took one last look... and yep tiny black dot.. I put that down to a satellite.. still though does give you a little thrill of excitement..  also i won't deny the history channel guy popped in to my thoughts for a second too..