Set up my 6" achro refractor in my backyard this evening, and caught Europa's transit shortly after sundown. The refractor had been banished to my garage recently while I have been playing with my new scope, and it was about time it came out for some exercise. It rewarded me with some of the best planetary images that I've managed to squeeze out of it yet.
The seeing was much better than it had been the last few weeks, and after playing with magnification I settled on 267x (9mm UO ortho, 2x Ultima barlow). I also spent some time trying different filters- a #11, #12, #21, #56, and #82. Best images were obtained with the #56 green on Jupiter, which showed belts from pole to pole, several festoons, and Europa's tiny black shadow traversing just above the NEB. I also managed to pick out Europa over the face of the planet (helped I'm sure by the reduced light transmission and contrast enhancement of the filter) just before it began to egress off the limb. Seeing appeared to be quite steady about 60-70 pecent of the time- great view, especially for my backyard! Finished my (short) night by trying out my new 35mm Panoptic, and spent some time checking out several OC's, winding my way through the winter Milky Way. This is going to be a great eyepiece for galaxy hunting! It was a very nice way to spend a winter's eve. I'm headed out to Twain Harte (east of Sonora) early tomorrow morning, for some snow- and stars of course!