Saturday, October 22, 2011

Jupter and Beyond the Infinite

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a beautiful shot of Jupiter and several of his moons.

One evening, when I still had my LX-200 10" SCT, I focused in on Jupiter. It was a beautiful night for "seeing" and I was spotting way more detail (in the belts) than I had seen before. Soon I spotted on of the four major moons, and then its shadow on Jupiter itself. The Great Red Spot appeared on one limb of the planet, clearer than I had ever seen it. I sat there and watched the GRS across the planet.

Then I realized my legs were stiff and I was shaking from the cold of the January night. That period of great seeing had lasted something like four hours!

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