Thursday, June 02, 2016

viewed Mars and Jupiter (Blue Mountains)

Viewed Jupiter in Ian's 12½" Dob. Only 3 moons. Great Red Spot front and centre. At times, a stunning view.

Later, I turned to Mars. Odd. Took a while to tag it. Had to re-centre the finder scope. Thought I had seen Ian adjust it earlier... The planet looked horrible. And it was not just the elevation. The collimation had gone off! Way off. Weird.

10:30 PM. Let Ian know. He was perturbed but concurred that the primary mirror had moved. He adjusted the sling and got it sorted. Yeh!

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Looked up Jupiter in SkyTools so to find the missing moon. Io, on its own to the west; Ganymede and Callisto on the other side.

Oh ho! Europa was in eclipse. It would pop into view on the east side after 11:15 PM...

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11:35 PM. Slewed the Celestron 14" to Jupiter. Dang. Europa was already out from the eclipse. I missed it emerging. It knew it was some time between 11:15 and 11:30...

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