Another short night

[The Warthog]

Went out tonight with a plan. I was hoping to catch the last of a shadow transit of Europa, when Jupiter cleared the roofs. I sent upa bout 9:00, and carefully polar aligned, and focused my 4mm ep to a very fine focus indeed, then looked at Saturn for a while. Smoked two thirds of a nice Cuban cigar while I waited. The air was humid and teh night totally windless. The cigar smoke hung like a veil around my scope and drifted lazily across the yard. It was about 8 tonight, so it was quite comfortable. I could clearly see three moons of Saturn, although the transparency was like the Welland Canal in August, when the algae are ripe. Came in, as Jupiter was only a muddy blur amongst the trees in the front, and came out about 10:30, relit my cigar, and pointed at Jupiter. It was a little wavy due to the closeness to the roofs, but Europa had cleared the disk of Jupiter, though only slightly, but the shadow would be preceding Europa across the disk. Guess I'll have to wait for St. George's day. Seeing is still tremendous, with nary a twinkle from any of the stars. When Jupiter got a little higher, it was very steady in the ep.

I am counting the days until my 6" Newt arrives.

[OXO]

Got a good view of the Cigar Galaxy then eh WH

Just wait till ya get ya 6" scope that will be awsome for you

James