[DobDobDob (Ron)]

Yeah me too Geoff, images always help

I had a few good hours observing last night with my binoculars, it ended up I had 5 highlights, firstly Saturn was as clear as a bell, and I could easily see the rings, it was fantastic, I stayed on it for 20 mins, then I saw a very faint globular cluster, it was a perfect example and only that the sky was so dark and because I had my new dew/light shades on, I could see it at all.

I then saw a really nice cluster, much larger and brighter, it was not globular but sort of a round shape but not circular (if you know what I mean). I don’t know the names of these clusters because I have no real way of telling and I did not take my lap top out with me. I find the planisphere is really only good for very large stars and constellation names.

I then hit the jackpot, the mother load (well for me anyway), there she hung in all her splendor, Jupiter and surrounded with four moons who were standing guard protecting her J

This was the clearest I have ever seen Jupiter, she was almost on fire, bright and large and the moons were spectacularly clear, Io & Europa were at 11 o’clock as I faced the planet, they were close together, and not far away from the planet. Then at 10.30 o’clock but much further out and in a different angle to each other were Ganymede & Callisto. These two moons were 2 to 2.5 times further apart from each other than Io & Europa were.

This was so amazingly clear, I believe I may have experienced two things happening, firstly the seeing was especially good for me right at that time, and secondly, it’s the first time I have used my new dew/light shields which I also baffled the inside with absorptive black felt.

Then I had my mystery, I saw something at first I thought this was way too big to be a star, however it was so blazingly bright I doubt that it could have been a planet, it was almost halfway between Saturn on my left (north-west) and Jupiter on my right (south east), but it was not as high in the sky in terms of degrees. I checked out the planisphere quickly, but didn’t really come away satisfied that I knew what it was, of course by this time I was sure it was a very large star.

I went inside and switched my computer on and turned Stellarium on and as soon as I pointed it in the right direction it revealed to me that it was Arctaurus, I made some notes about the night in my observation diary and resolved to learn more about Arctaurus today. So all in all I have a pretty spectacular end to my day. I can’t wait till I get better gear and learn how to use it all, I wish I was 30 years younger and had all that time over again to observe the universe.