Was up at 4 a.m. this morning and managed to get a scope on all 5 planets before the sun finally washed out Mars and Jupiter became a fuzzy pale blob. Seeing was moderate to poor so everything was a bit fuzzy and washed out (still too much humidity it looked like to me).
While this is probably one for "Observations", I was stunned by the movement of Jupiter's moons in less than 48 hours. I was out Friday night getting a hour or two between cloud banks when Jupiter popped up over the trees and I got bead on it in moderate seeing conditions (trying out the "new" used SW708). The 4 visible moons were basically in a straight line at 80 degrees azimuth (NE as viewed in the EP) from the planet.
This morning, the ones I could make out, were all clustered together, again at about 80 degrees, first time I had actually taken note of the movement even though I know they move. Really was a moment of realization!
I have been approached by some friends about the best places around to see this, and we hopefully will get in a Saturday morning soon to have a viewing session, I've offered to bring my telescopes if they want to get a closer look at each planet. Fingers crossed for the weather to clear over the next 2 weeks.
