A break in the weather

I had a public open night scheduled for July 12. The weather forecasts and the weather conditions called for mostly cloudy skies all night with a high chance for rain. Reality set in, however, with breaks appearing in the clouds at about 8:00 PM. I headed to Stephens and arrived a little after 9:00 --our announced start time-- to find a family of four waiting at the door. No sooner had I uncovered the telescope and opened the dome than the clouds began to break. At first we grabbed a few seconds of viewing at a time through passing holes in the clouds. Soon, however, the clouds scudded away to the east and we had a clear view of the waxing gibbous Moon -- our main subject for the night. After the family left there was a quiet period when I played with my camera once again to grab a few afocal shots of the Moon as I did a month earlier.

I put the camera away as more people began to arrive. We viewed the Moon at about 30X through the excellent vintage eyepiece and again at about 100X through a modern Plossl eyepiece. Later we waited for Jupiter to rise in the southeast above the neighbor's trees. Those were awkward moments waiting but those who stayed were rewarded with very good views of the huge planet. At 100X we could make out two major cloud bands, perhaps a bit of detail in the atmosphere around the bands, and the four Galilean satellites arranged to one side --on the right, as seen through the eyepiece-- in two pairs.

In all 29 visitors came to the Observatory. The clear sky was a welcome surprise and I was glad I trusted my instincts and made the trip to Hiram; I was going to cancel. The last visitors left at about 11:10 and I, sweating profusely in the warm (~ 80 F) and extremely muggy atmosphere (ground haze and mists, heavy dew on everything), was happy to close the dome and head home in an air conditioned car! By midnight the sky had become 100 percent overcast once more and rain developed overnight ... that part followed the experts' predictions!

Images: The waxing gibbous Moon as seen through the eyepiece of the Cooley Telescope of Stephens Memorial Observatory. Fuji Finepix S7000 digital camera: ISO 400, 1/200 sec., f/4.5, July 12 at about 8:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time. Large image is in color; detail shows color removed. South is up. Photo by James Guilford.