"The King shall come when morning dawns and light triumphant breaks; when beauty gilds the eastern hills and life to joy awakes."

This text is a standard Advent hymn, but the words are curiously appropriate for my observing session this morning, as I awoke with joy in anticipation of viewing the King of the Planets, Jupiter.

The last time I looked at Jupiter was on January 20, when it was very close to Mars, and very low in the sky. My last good look at Jupiter was on November 30, 1997.

When I first got outside, Jupiter was obscured by a tree, so I took a look at the other nearby Big Bright Thing, a nearly 3rd quarter moon. I've never observed the moon with a scope in this phase before, and there is one main reason for that: The only time I ever used to get up at the insane hour of 3am to observe was to _get away from the moon_.

But since I've become interested in observing everything, I actually looked forward to it because the terminator was ideally placed.

The last time I observed the moon was two weeks ago, and so the phase was almost exactly the opposite from what it was then -- very interesting. The illumination at the was about the same, but the light came from the opposite direction.

Visually, the moon had a small, irregular halo around it, which was due either to smoke or a cirrus haze. There were no circles around the moon -- just an irregular glow in the immediate vicinity of the disk.

I began with low power (119x) to check the seeing and general features. There were lots of low fequency waves, but within these waves, images were sharp -- there was not much high frequency fuzziness.

I wanted to see how much magnification the seeing supported, so I ran up to 413x (7.5mm ep), and detail leaped out at me. I then went to the barlow + the 10mm ep, yielding 620x. I could see slightly more detail, but I could tell I was somewhat beyond the useful magnification limit. Since the limit seemed to be higher than 413x, I stayed with this ep/barlow combination.

I began with Rupes Recta -- The Straight Wall (Rukl 54). It showed up as a thin white line that seemed ever so slightly curved. I could see a small section of Rima Birt as a very faint gray line winding around near Birt E. (Or is it "E Birt"? If so, where's "Ernie"?)

I moved east to Arzachel (Rukl 55), your basic lunar crater with a classic central mountain. I could see part of one of the rilles, which showed up as a dark curved line.

I moved north along the terminator, drinking in all the wonderful detail and contrasty landscapes and arrived at my old friend Hyginus (Rukl 34). The sun was setting in this relatively flat area and the Hyginus Rille stood out in high relief.

I then moved south a little bit to enjoy the complex network of Triesnecker Rilles which were a lot more obvious now, because of the lower sun angle, than they were to me 2 weeks ago. I thought again how fortuitous it was that I was able to observe the same area two weeks apart to see the interesting differences in lighting.

I then browsed the terminator, continuing north, taking in the detail. By this time, Jupiter had now risen above the trees, and I was impatient to look at it, so I was hurrying. I ended with a nice view of Rima Sheepshanks in Mare Frigoris.

Jupiter was relatively low, and was more affected by bad seeing than the moon was. I found that 413x was the most I could get. Also, there was a slight chromatic aberration, I presume due to the atmosphere or the fact that I was looking through a cirrus haze, which caused the north limb to be slightly bluish, and the southern limb to be yellowish.

The four Galilean satellites were widely spaced, two on each side of the planet.

I searched for, and failed to see the Great Red Spot, so I began examining the detail that was there.

The North Equatorial Belt was very dark. Its north edge was very sharp and well defined, creating a strong contrast with the North Tropical Zone, which was extremely bright.

The south edge of the NEB looked uneven, and it looked like there were some large bulges trying to invade the Equatorial Zone.

The North Temperate Belt was very narrow, dark and pronounced. North of this, the belts and zones blended into a grayish cap.

Taking a break from the eyepiece, I noticed a bright star low in the east. Higher up I recognized Andromeda and Pegasus, and Aries lower down. I was trying to identify this bright star in what much be Pisces when I suddenly realized it must be Saturn.

Returning to Jupiter, the South Equatorial Belt was wider and not as dark as its counterpart in the north. The entire southern hemisphere seemed to show less definition, contrast and detail than the northern hemisphere.

As I was studying the southern hemisphere, I noticed that the SEB had a break in it. It was hard to see, and I had to depend on moments of clearer seeing to make out what it was. I could see a definite extension of light material invading the SEB from the South Tropical Zone at a crazy angle.

I figured I was seeing the Great Red Spot. It was significantly paler now than it was when I was observing it last fall. It was hard to tell if it was really paler, or if the bad conditions just made it look worse. I think it's actually paler.

There was no hint of color whatsoeever. It was a shade of gray that was barely lighter than the belts, but darker than the zones. It was located about halfway in the SEB and halfway in the STrZ.

As the sky got lighter, the seeing got worse and worse.

Eventually Venus rose from behind my neighbor's house, a blinding magnitude -4. These three planets and the moon made a cool looking, widely spaced line in the sky, neatly marking off the ecliptic.

With the sun about to rise and the seeing rapidly deteriorating, I packed up.

Later, I confirmed from the RASC Observser's Handbook that the GRS transitted about 20 minutes after I quit.

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Date:         June 16, 1998 3:30-5am (1030-1200 UTC)
Location:     Backyard in Roseville (near Sacramento), CA 121W 16', 38N 44'
Instrument:   Intes MK-91 9" f/13.6 Maksutov-Cassegrain
Oculars:      10, 7.5mm Sirius Ploessl; 2x Orion barlow
Seeing:       7/10 really wavy, but sharp
Transparency: 5/10 cirrus clouds