Aquarius Doubles With Bright Moon Close; Io Plus Shadow

[cloudsweeper]

I set up the convenient AR102S frac on the Celestron GoTo mount (keeping below 60deg to avoid banging into the mount!)

Moon, waxing gibbous, emerged from the side of a house at 7.45, low, east of south.  Lovely at x34, though bright.  Better at x100.  Copernicus good, Plato (further from terminator) was almost fully illuminated.  

Sigma 2944 (Aqr) - 7th mag pair, 1.9" apart - close match, just split at x200, in moments of better seeing, secondary at 5 o'clock.

Sadaltager (Aqr) - closely matched 4th mag pair {(2) + 1}, 2.3" apart - split at x150, close, well matched, secondary at 6 o'clock.

Sigma 2936 (Aqr) - no sign of 9.6 mag secondary due to the bright Moon nearby.

Aquarius globulars: faint M72 didn't show due to the Moon; brighter M72 was just a pale fuzz at x34, and a larger fuzz at x100.

The highlight of the session however was Io and its shadow on Jupiter's face.  (I put this in the planetary section earlier, so hope I will be excused for a little repetition here. 😉)

At 6.50 Io was across Jupiter's face (but I didn't see it).  No sign of its shadow.  The whole view lacked clarity (target low), so I went back down to x75, and at 7.25 Io was just leaving the disc and kissing it from the west - a nice sight.  Then Io's shadow (on the equator, about 1/3 away from the western limb) came into view, using AV.  Very pleasing!  

A very satisfying 90 minute session under still and unusually clear conditions!

Doug.

 

Edited October 16, 2021 by cloudsweeper

[domstar]

Hi Doug. Always a pleasure and an inspiration to read your reports.

[F15Rules]

Nice report!

I've just got home from a family evening meal out and noticed how clear it is..(cold, though, only 6 degrees!).

I'm going out in a few minutes to see what I can see..😊

Dave

[wookie1965]

Brilliant Doug was clear here before I was debating whether to set up or not, looked at Jupiter with my binoculars, got my tripod out levelled it put the mount on turned around bank of cloud coming over. 

I should of set up earlier then I could of got at least an hour. 

Smashing report I will have to check but I am sure there are a couple there I have not seen so thanks for them. 

[cloudsweeper]

8 hours ago, domstar said:

Hi Doug. Always a pleasure and an inspiration to read your reports.

Thanks Dom - good to hear from you again!

 

8 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Nice report!

I've just got home from a family evening meal out and noticed how clear it is..(cold, though, only 6 degrees!).

I'm going out in a few minutes to see what I can see..😊

Dave

Thanks Dave.  Cold, yes - but still and clear for a change, so I jumped at the chance just in time before it clouded over!

 

7 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Brilliant Doug was clear here before I was debating whether to set up or not, looked at Jupiter with my binoculars, got my tripod out levelled it put the mount on turned around bank of cloud coming over. 

I should of set up earlier then I could of got at least an hour. 

Smashing report I will have to check but I am sure there are a couple there I have not seen so thanks for them. 

Thanks Paul.  Other good ones in Aqr are: Sigma 2744 (1.3"), 53 Aqr (1.3"), 41 Aqr (5.2"), Sigma 2988 (3.5"), 94 Aqr (13"), 107 Aqr (6.6").  

 

[cloudsweeper]

It did strike me that knowing Io's shadow was there (Stellarium) was (on this occasion at least) vital in getting to see it.  A lot of patience and AV cracked it.

Doug.

[F15Rules]

9 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Brilliant Doug was clear here before I was debating whether to set up or not, looked at Jupiter with my binoculars, got my tripod out levelled it put the mount on turned around bank of cloud coming over. 

I should of set up earlier then I could of got at least an hour. 

Smashing report I will have to check but I am sure there are a couple there I have not seen so thanks for them. 

I had the same here Paul..got all set up (and well wrapped up, it was 🥶 COLD last night!), 6 or 7 minutes looking at the moon...and in rolled the clouds🙄..

Of course, this morning it's back to clear blue sky!🤪😂

Dave