Got out the Meade 127NT for some planetary viewing shortly after midnight. Used the NexStar mount:
Initially struggled with the focusing as the seeing varied. Used 162x and 171x. Since my views are “upside down”, directions reported are the reverse of what I’m seeing.
- Jupiter – initially only Ganymede, Callisto, and Io was visible to the left of the planet. Soon Europa was visible as a dot sitting on the western limb – first time I’ve seen anything like this. Eventually Europa was fully out in the open and in line with the other moons.
- Saturn – interesting to see Rhea and Titan below the planet in a vertical line.
- Mars – again, the south polar cap was prominent, with some darker marking just above it. A very pleasing view.
Later that evening, got out the Galileoscope on the NexStar for some deep-sky work. Went from the heaviest to the lightest scope for this mount:
Not good for overhead targets because it’s a straight-through scope, but my other slow 50mm (Tasco 66TE) doesn’t have a dovetail bar for the mount.
- M13 – high overhead, so I was craning my neck to see this (16x).
- M5 – visible with direct vision at 16x, despite not being so high up in the sky.
- M4 – FAIL; could not see this.
- M80 – able to see at 29x.
- M11 – visible at 29x with a few stars popping in/out of view, but could only view for a few seconds because it was tough on my neck being placed so high up.
- M27 – just visible at 29x; more striking with broadband filter.
- M39 – very nice
OC ; got the bug and sketched this cluster (29x).
7-9-20 (early morning)
Around midnight it was time for some planetary viewing, so next it was the Meade Polaris 70 on the NexStar:
Used 143x and 150x.
- Jupiter – shadow transit of Callisto visible near the western limb just above the northern equatorial belt; was able to catch Callisto appearing as a dot on the same limb. First time I’ve seen both moon and its shadow just before transit.
Also a tiny brown spot was visible on the southern equatorial belt just south of the shadow transit; don’t think it was theGRS because it was so small.