I used my phone adapter for the first time and got some great (to me) shots of the moon's lunar surface much better than I anticipated.
I then swung my scope up to take a glance at Albireo in Cygnus. That double star never gets old!
I then viewed Saturn and Jupiter as the planet viewing was decent. I was able to make out Saturn's casini division and the view was crisp.
I then turned my attention to Jupiter. The bands of Jupiter popped out every so often during those moments of good seeing and it was beautiful.
I then noticed that one of the moons appeared be getting close to Jupiter. A few minutes later I noticed a round dark spot appear on Jupiters surface. This spot started slowly moving across the face of the planet. At that moment I realized I was witnessing the transit of one of Jupiter's moons and sat and observed watching the shadow slowly track across the planet's surface. This is the first time I had ever experienced this and it was breath taking seeing it for the first time. I couldn't believe how well I could see the shadow.
I ran in to the house and looked at my astronomy magazine and sure enough the moon Io was transiting that night.
My scope is a Starblast 6i with a 150mm primary and a f5 focal ratio.
The best seeing that night was at 85x with my 8.8mm
I tried it with a Barlow at 170x but the views were just a lot better at 85x.
Anyway I wanted to share my experience I will definitely be paying a lot more attention to Jupiter and when it's moons are expected to transit across its face. All of this from my light polluted back yard.
