October 8 -- At Stephens Memorial Observatory we had a grand night showing off Earth's Moon in glorious detail followed by (when it finally rose above neighboring trees) very good views of Jupiter and its four Galilean moons! It was fun looking at and identifying the Moon's seas and craters and the light colored rays that radiate from a couple of Luna's bigger and more recent encounters with asteroids. Identifying crater Hermite on the Moon's northern limb was interesting as well since it is near the Moon's north pole and viewed nearly edge-on.
Seeing was not quite as good as we expected for planet Jupiter but that was likely because it was fairly low when we first began looking at it. There was some trace of bluish coloration in the planetary disk and the two brownish equatorial bands stood right out. As the gas giant rose and we observed through less and cooler air, we could make out some unevenness in the bands and pick out traces of a third band --in the southern hemisphere-- perhaps even occasional hints of more.
All-told 39 visitors took looks through our telescope Saturday night. The last to leave got a bonus... two fast, bright meteors shown through Luna's glow to remind us it was the night the 2011 Draconid meteor shower peaked!
