by Michael Peck
Is it possible that I managed to see two Galilean moons of Jupiter in my lowly and very old binoculars? I had trouble making out the rings of Saturn about a half hour ago, but am pretty certain I saw two moons of Jupiter.
As I was looking at Jupiter, the dimmer moon was as about 8 o'clock, probably three Jupiter-diameters away from Jupiter, and the other was at 2 o'clock, probably 8 diameters away.
I didn't see anything that I thought were starts in the vicinity, just these two. I dunno, but it's pretty cool thinking I did see them!
Also, Orion was just coming up, and I could see the fuzz of the Orion nebula just above the leaves of a tree. I think this is probably still my favorite thing to look at, but probably because it's the first thing I ever saw through a telescope of anything better than worst quality.
Wishing I could have joined people at Coe or MB, as I couldn't even see the big or little dipper! (I usually get 3 on the little dipper, tonight just one, Polaris!)
Mike
p.s. Does anyone have experience collimating a C8? I'm starting to
realize that I should worry about it, and would like some guidance from
someone with experience. I'm a tinkerer by nature, but am scared to
death of hurting the thing and losing my window to the