Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinderboxsky
Bob, your comments captured my impressions too. Europa and Io were in very close conjunction which added to the scene as Glen noted.
We had clear skies here at 4.00am and I started observing with my 85mm Ziess spotting scope at 25X which allowed me to capture Mars, Jupiter and the wide pair Zubenelgenubi in the same FOV, along with a sprinkling of other field stars. It was a magnificent field.
I then swapped to my ED103S on a goto mount as I want to track the progress during the day. I found my Panoptic 24 giving 33X the best option as seeing here is just average.
At 5.30am, 10 minutes before sunrise, Jupiter’s disc had faded to a faint yellow with the main bands still very visible and the four moons starting to fade from view. Mars was a pretty bright pink. Mars was still almost vertically above Jupiter but had got noticeably closer to Jupiter.
At 8.30am, Jupiter was pale white against the blue sky with the main bands still visible. Mars was a bright pink. By now, the orientation of the two planets had clearly changed, reflecting the Earth’s rotation sweeping the two across the sky. Keeping Jupiter in the centre of the FOV Mars has clearly rotated clockwise. Note, my scope is showing a horizontal mirror reversed image.
At 9.30am, the pair are very close to culmination. Mars is now at about the 1.30 clock-face position relative to Jupiter.
I think closest approach is at about 11.25am, so Ill have another look then. I’ll visit Mercury and Saturn and view bright double stars in the meantime.
|
Steve, I like your remarks about Mars appearing pink. I followed Mars for about 30 mins after sunrise and was surprised how pink (rather than red) it appeared.
And that ring around the Moon I mentioned . . . it is now raining.