21:25-23:20 CST
The skies were clear, winds were calm, and the temperature was 45 F (7 C). I brought my Astro-Tech AT80ED refractor telescope and my small Bresser Alt/Az mount out to get some quick viewing in since the weather forecast was for clouds the next several days. After a few scans of the sky, seeing conditions looked to be about perfect, 5/5.
Jupiter was high in the sky so I put in my Celestron 8-24 mm (70x-23x) Zoom eyepiece and set my telescope on it. The four Galilean moons were all on one side. I played with various eyepieces and I noticed that Jupiter was ever so slightly sharper with my 8 mm (70x) Plössl than at 8 mm on the zoom lens. 24 mm on the zoom looked very nice though. I was able to use my 6 mm Plössl and 2X Barlow (187x) on Jupiter this night. The two usual cloud bands were visible with the northern band being more pronounced with a noticeable festoon on it.
Next, I star hopped my way to Neptune with my 17 mm (33x) Plössl since it was very near Jupiter according to Stellarium. It appeared as a tiny blue “star” located between the stars HIP 116402 and HIP 116265. I bumped the power up to 187x with my 6 mm Plössl and 2X Barlow but Neptune just grew dimmer, not visibly larger.
I put my 17 mm eyepiece in and scanned my western skies in between my trees. No real target, just admiring.
I was about to quit when I noticed Orion rising between the houses to the southeast. The Great Nebula in Orion was barely above the roof but still looked beautiful in my 17 mm eyepiece. The Trapezium Cluster was bright and clear and I could see nebulosity even through my
I repositioned my telescope to catch Mars coming over my rooftop. It looked large even with my 17 mm eyepiece. As Mars rose, I switched to my 6 mm eyepiece and then added the 2X Barlow. This was the best I’d ever seen Mars! It appeared as a clear orange disk with an obvious dark region in the southeast quadrant. I will soon need to bring my larger telescope out to view it during opposition in a few weeks. I could see a smaller dark region in the opposite hemisphere with possibly some whitening from maybe an ice cap (05:10
(Note: After coming indoors, I confirmed on both Stellarium and SkySafari that the details I saw on Mars were real, except for the whitening.)
I considered the awesome view of Mars the grand finale for the night and quit.