It had been raining here in San Francisco all day Saturday, so I was quite surprised to look out my window and see clear skies this evening as far as I could see! I put the 8" out to cool down and waited for the rain to start again, but unbelievably the rain did not come.

So I settled down for a little shallow sky observing, the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. The Moon was showing lots of detail, but the most interesting thing I observed was the crater Maurolycus. If you own a real telescope, that is, a reflector, 8^) the crater appears to have a clown face in it. two small craters from the eyes and the shadow cast by the central peak below these craters act as the nose, then there is a simi-circle of smaller craters and a wrinkled ridge or sinuous rille that from the smile.

Even in my light polluted skies I could make out a shadow transit on Jupiter right across the southern belt, and Saturn was it's lovely self, although I could not make out much detail.

All in all an hour and a half well spent.

Rashad