Partially cloudy, but still good enough for some lunar observing. Clouds were continuously moving in from the coast eastward (marine layer).
With the moon lower down the horizon, the straight-through 50mm
Used 56x (9mm Orion Expanse), occasionally going up to 83x (6mm Orion Expanse). With the moon close to full, surface features were very bright.
- 12-day Moon – the seas and the rays (especially from Tycho) are prominent now. The most notable craters are 45m Aristarchus to the north with its bright reflectivity, and the massive 200+m Schickard to the south near the terminator, with its smooth floor. Other highlights include Gassendi in the middle with its low mountain ring and peaks in the center and smaller crater bordering the top wall; Schroter’s U-shaped valley next to Aristarchus; Kepler with its bright ray; edge-wise view of Phocylides on the terminator next to Schickard; and the triplet of equal-sized craters Zuchius, Bettinus, and Kircher a little to the south of Schickard and Phocylides.
There are a ton of smaller craters and features near the terminator well worth exploring.
7-3-20
At about 1 AM, went back outside and the skies were now calm and clear; Jupiter and Saturn were on the southern horizon so out I went again with the Galileoscope. The first time I’m seeing the gas planets and Mars this year.
This time I used my 7.5mm Orion Sirius Plossl (67x) and 6.3mm Orion Sirius Plossl (79x) EPs, thinking they might provide sharper views than my workhorse Expanse EPs, despite their narrower
- Moon – re-observed the features described above with the Plossl EPs. Excellent views despite the smaller
FOV .
- Jupiter – crisp with the equatorial bands prominent and all four Galilean moons in line (two to the left and two to the right of the planet).
- Saturn – beautiful, with a hint of the Cassini Division visible because of the calm air. Titan in view as well.
- Mars – visible lower down the south-eastern horizon. Despite this, dark markings were evident on the tiny red-orange gibbous disk.
