(I actually went out last night, the 23rd, 2200 to 2230, but the seeing was not good. I waited too long and the full Moon was up over the trees to my east and the sky was washed out with light from dust. Nominally, it was "clear" for the weather report, but with the end of Covid restrictions and new residential construction in my neighborhood, the seeing is greatly degraded and I went in after 30 minutes of trying.)
17-18 July 2021
It took some time (2300 to 0048) to target M7 Ptolemy's cluster. I could make it out naked eye and find with my binoculars, but through the red-dot it was hard to locate and center. I counted only 22 stars.
Little else in that neighborhood was readily apparent.
Saturn and Jupiter went better for me. After viewing Saturn (77.6 X) and noting the the rings and planets in my log, The northern and southern bands stood out.
Jupiter was high enough and just about jumped out at me in the telescope. I had forgotten how large it is. (Explore 102mm refractor
f/6.47 with 8mm ocular and 2X Barlow for 165X). From about 0100 to 0130, I watched Europa begin its transit. As I experienced a similar event earlier, from my point of view, the moon was moving behind the planet. I watched the moon get closer to the disk and continued to view and check the time as it moved ever nearer. At some point, it became arbitrary and I called it at 0130.
FOV ~ 0.3 degrees about 19 arc minutes
Returning inside and checking Sky & Telescope's Jupiter watch, I found that it was Europa and that it began
its transit in front of the planet at 0632 UT.
