(SNES) Jupiter and Io, Saturday night

["David Aucoin" <graywwoolf@msn.com>]

Well last night was a treat!

I had just finished up observing with my 4" refractor after looking at Saturn
and Jupiter. With the moon situated between the 2 gas giants in the sky, it
kinda washed out any hope of getting any details. In fact, I couldnt see all
the moons of Saturn, even though I can see 5 in my refractor at any time.

Previously in the evening, we opened up the club 17.5" and mased it down to 6"
and looked at Jupiter and Saturn. We observed many bands and festoons and of
course the 4 moons, 2 to a side. Sautrn showed 5 moons but with the washed out
mmon glare, I couldnt pick out any more.

We put the scope away and headed back inside the clubhouse and warm up and
talk shop. Bruce Berger arrived during our little planet show and asked if he
could shoot Jupiter through my 4" with his new Minolta DiMage digital camera.
We managed to get a few goodpics of jupiters moons, but the glare was also a
problem.

We went back inside and looked at the pics on the monitor. A newer pre-club
member asked if we could take out the 17.5" again. At that point I decided to
head home and was just about to leave when I was looking at Jupiter again with
a 26mm Plossl in the 17.5" when I noticed Io was missing. I went and grabbed
my 7mm Nagler and put it in the 17 when I saw a great sight. Io's shadow was
now on the NEB and to my surprise, I could see Io itself not too far from its
shadow.

After looking at it for a few seconds I noticed a weird 3-D effect happening.
Looking at the details of Jupiters bands, the shadow of Io drifting across the
face of Jupiter and Io itself chasing its shadow. It had a surreal 3-D effect
and I kept noticing that and pointed it out to the other 3 observers sharing
the sites with me. Unfortunately, Bruce Gerhard couldnt see Io, just its
shadow, and the other 2 clearly saw both Io and its shdaow.

After looking for a few more minutes, I took my Nagler, grabbed my Ultima 2X
barlow and looked through my 4". I could clearly see Io's shadow, but I only
glimpsed Io itself. The achromatic haze in addition to the moon's glare made
it difficult to clearly see Io chasing it's shadow, but I thought I caught it
once.

This was truly a magnificent sight to see. I will never forget that 3-D effect
and hope i can witness it again.

Dave Aucoin


Climb high, Climb far, Your aim the sky, Your goal the stars

Norwood, MA.
42.18870 North Latitude,
71.20926 West Longitude
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