Nice Night
By Bill Arnett

As I predicted :-) it was a nice night for Jupiter and Saturn. City light pollution prevented me from seeing Mimas but I did see 5 other Saturnian moons (and the interloper star). Cassini's division was visible all around, a first for me. And I *think* I got a hint a few times of the controversially named feature in the A-ring. I was confident that there was some sort of non-uniformity there and occasionally I got a hint of a narrow line at about the right place.

It was fun to see Io as it began to transit. It was in front of the SEB and so was easy to see at first. A bright white spot, smaller than the ovals one normally sees and brighter. But as it moved away from the limb it faded, or more likely, Jupiter's disk brightened, and Io disappeared. But its shadow was obvious enough :-)

Just for the heck of it, I slewed over to M15. Shouldn't have; very disappointing washed out by the city. I have been saving M42 until a good night. But really, I'm afraid of what I'll see (or more correctly not see). My backyard is great for the Moon and the planets but it is still city :-(

OTOH, I'm thinking of doing my Leonid watch from my backyard. It would mean giving up the faint ones in favor of considerably greater comfort and convenience.