Up Before the Sun, 16 February
Scanning the very dark sky before twilight, Jupiter dominates the viw at magnitude -2, just 10 above the SE horizon. At the moment it sits between two ninth magnitude globular clusters, NGC 6235 and NGC 6287, moving closer to the latter with each passing day.
In a 6″ Maksutov with a zoom eyepiece (they’re very good) it is possible to make out a lot of detail even at the lower powers. The moons string out in a line with faint Callisto on the E side and Io, Europa and bright Ganymede in ascending distance from the planet on the W. The Great Red Spot is prominently separated from the SEB with a bright white boundary between them. GRS approaches the planet’s Central meridian and will be on it in less than an hour (5:30 a.m. in fact).
Here’s the scene:
