Near Double Transit Thursday night

by
Steve Gottlieb
Richard Navarrete
Mark Wagner
Phil Chambers
Rich Neuschaefer
Bruce Jensen

Steve Gottlieb

Did anyone watch the near double transit of Io and Ganymede last night? Io's shadow transit (on the SEB) was visible from 7:00 until its exit at 9:08 and within a half hour Ganymede's shadow started moving across Jupiter's disc. Over 4 hours of shadow transits perfectly placed!

Richard Navarrete

Yes I did, with Goldie, my 6" newt. At sevenish I observed Io's shadow and the disk of Ganymede against the planet. I went out again around 9:45. The scope had cooled and the seeing was pretty good. I was using a 6.7 Meade UWA for 179x and observed Ganymede's shadow. Neat stuff! I also spent a little time observing the E.T. cluster, some people call it the Owl Cluster, NGC 457 in Cass. Cute little bugger.

It is soooo nice being able to carry Goldie out in one fell swoop for some quick or last minute observing sessions.

Mark Wagner

I particularly enjoyed the views of Ganymede's egress while its shadow was ingressing at the opposite edge of the disk. With the notably lousy deep sky observing at Montebello last night, it was great to see Jupiter through a nice 5" AP.

Phil Chambers

Saw Io's shadow as Io was a little away from the planet. I wasnt planning on doing video but had all the gear so I got set up just when Io was a bump on the planet. Just taped about 6 or 7 min worth. Right in the middle of the SEB. I havent mined the tape for frame grabs yet. No Ganymede footage. Seeing wasnt all that great for Io. Later it cleaned up some but I was busy.

Rich Neuschaefer

Just for the record Mark was doing planetary observing early in the evening with his 10" Dobs. It was giving very nice views of the moon and Jupiter.

He was also showing me some "almost not there" DSOs. It was amazing we could see them given the sky was not very transparent.

Bruce Jensen

Out at Del Valle, the seeing was excellent to start, and Jupiter put on a marvelous show all evening. The large white spot in the N (?) Eq belt was blatantly obvious and detailed, much moreso than the GRS has been in decades it seems, and the rest of the planet was a treasure trove of extraterrestrial meteorology :-)