| Observer | Dave Staples |
|---|---|
| Date | 03 May 2001 |
| Time | 2030-2230 PDT |
| Location | Santa Rosa, Ca 38°16'N 122°40'W |
| Weather | Warm, Windy and very bright |
| Equip. | C8, 40mm, 32mm, 26mm, 7.5mm plossls, 2x barlow |
| Seeing | 6/10 |
| Trans. | 8/10 |
Well it didn't start out windy but it sure ended that way. I set up about 7:45 to take an early look at the moon. It was warm and calm (didn't stay that way long) so I puttered around Tyco and Mare Nubium and the Ptolemaeus crater with its central peak illuminated and western floor in shadow. I was able to go all the way to 541x and stay in focus but bouncing (not to bad though) around due to wind.
One thing that made a big difference was the vibration suppression pads I picked up cheap from Natural Wonders, without them it was kind of like trying to observe in an earthquake.
Once it got dark enough, I moved over to Jupiter to catch the start of IO's transit. Viewing wasn't to good here...looking right over my roof. However, it was pretty cool to see Io (quite bright) move onto the SEB.
On to the Moon, the terracing in Copernicus was nicely highlighted with the western floor in shadow, the mountains along the eastern side of Sirius Iridium stood out in stark contrast looking very 3D. About this time the wind really started kicking up and the neighbors new billion watt motion detector lights turning on with every big gust so I gave up and went inside intending to get up around 3:30 to look at Mars...it never happened.
Can't wait for New Moon (or at least 3rd quarter) to use the SA2000 I received from Albert yesterday.