La Luna and Ol' Jove

by Kevin Schuerman

I was just doing a quick optics check on my Uti 8" Newtonian before sending it off to Costa Rica, when the Moon and Jupiter appeared above the eastern horizon. They looked fairly close together, so I swung the scope around. Both easily fit in the same FOV with a 30mm Plossl. The Moon looked fairly crisp at low power, and I could see Jupiter's equatorial belts and four Galilean moons. Jupiter was too low to attempt higher magnification, but I thought the pairing was absolutely beautiful, especially after a month of rain that was interrupted only by the waxing gibbous Moon!

Posted on sf-bay-tac Jan 31, 2005 00:17:41 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 31, 2005 17:45:11 PT