A LITTLE OBSERVING, A LITTLE IMAGING, JUNE 17-8

The predicted morning rain failed to develop, but the CSC prediction for the evening changed from blue to grey. Steve K and I shelved our plans to image at Binbrook. As evening fell the sky didn’t look too bad. I was shooting the crescent Moon below Venus when Steve dropped by (Monday night the Moon will be between Venus and Saturn):

The air was heavy with moisture and the seeing was only 4 or 5 arc-seconds (components of Epsilon Lyrae scintillated badly and planetary nebulas didn’t show detail). We looked at a number of objects but decided to image Io’s transit of Jupiter starting about 1:30 am when the moon’s dark shadow, closely trailing the moon, was just on the planet’s limb:

The seeing never really improved but by 1:45 am it was possible to see both Io (transiting against the NEB) and its shadow against the planet’s disk:

Monday night is looking better for observing and imaging. Steve K and I plan to go to Binbrook; email me if you are interested in joining us!