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Saturday September 4th the TAC observing group had a star party at Fremont Peak state park, about 70 miles south of San Jose, California. The fog moved inland from the ocean blocking much of the light from the towns below our observing area.
There were 20 or more people with telescopes at the star party that night. I looked at several deep sky objects waiting for Jupiter, Saturn, and the third quarter moon. This turned out to be one of the better nights for seeing. As Jupiter climbed higher the air was quite steady, seeing was 7 of 10 and better at times.
I made a sketch of Jupiter but made virtually no notes. I didn't think I would let so much time pass before writing a report. I believe the time was about 1:30 am PDT when I made the sketch. When I started my sketch the beginning of the rift in the NEB was about two thirds of the way to trailing limb of the planet, this is the left side of Jupiter as seen through my eyepiece.
The NEB was very "busy" with detail. A little ahead of the rift in the NEB was a small "hollow" area in the lower side of the NEB with a dark spot in this hollow. A little nearer yet to the trailing limb was the beginning of a long festoon coming down from the NEB into the EZ at an angle and then flowing relatively straight down the middle of the EZ. In the EZ near the middle of the planet this long festoon bent up a little toward the NEB and then down again making a little inverted "V" and continuing down the middle of the EZ to nearly two thirds of the way to the leading limb of Jupiter. At the lower edge of the NEB, roughly above the end of the long festoon was a blue/gray bar.
Well above the NEB, not quite to the center line of the planet, was a smallish spot, slightly elongated. As I remember this spot was quite red. It was about the NEB about the thickness of the NEB.
The northern half of the SEB was quite light in color. The lower half was more normal in color. Below the SEB were three thinner dark bands.
Later in the morning as the GRS passed the leading limb there were at least four white ovals in the SEB looking like a twisted rope behind the GRS. They were right on the limb, the sky was getting light and the seeing was starting to degrade.
After sketching Jupiter I looked at Saturn. The Cassini division was easy to see. You could see a thinning in the "A" ring. The "B" and "C" rings were also easy to see. I didn't see "spokes" in the "B" ring but its inner half did look thinner farther out than the "C" ring should extend.
Near dawn looking at the Moon rills on the floor of the crater Gassendi were a real treat. The Sun was setting on Sinus Iridum, peaks in its wall were casting shadows like the teeth of a shark.
I used two telescopes my AP 180 mm f/9 EDT APO refractor and AP Stowaway (92.5 mm f/4.9) APO triplet refractor. The 180EDT performed well as always. The Stowaway performed better than ever. It was best seeing I've had when using the Stowaway which points out again not to judge a telescope until you have a night of good seeing.
With the AP Stowaway I could see the rift in the NEB and most of the long festoon. The detail very good. All three parts of Saturn's rings were easy to see. I could see about half of the rills on the floor of the crater Gassendi. I was very happy with the little scopes planetary performance.
With the AP 180EDT I used the AP/Zeiss binoviewer, AP barlow and Zeiss Abbe Ortho eyepieces. Most of the time I used the 16 mm eyepieces giving about 300x with the barlow and binoviewer. Part of the time I used 10 mm eyepieces giving about 500x. The mount was an AP 800.
With the AP Stowaway I was using a Celestron 2x barlow and several different eyepieces. Most of the time I was using a Takahashi 5 mm LE ED eyepiece. The mount was a TV Gibraltar.