June 1st Astro Log

Page 1
2020 June 1 2:37 AM EDT
Very clear skies.

Jupiter & Saturn ~25degrees altitude, 5degrees apart.
A flickering Mars rises to the east.
Vega is <10degrees from Zenith.

[Sketch of Saturn] Saturn - 25mm & DT6"
Saturn lacks much detail.

Telescope is very wobbly on cardboard ground protector (necessary to keep Dob base dry)
Maybe a problem for images. Need a better solution for dewy ground contact.

[Sketch of Saturn] 10mm + DT6
Mount wobble is severe @ this magnification. Cassini division very rarely pops out of the seeing at the outer edges of the rings, and a very subtle dark equator can be seen.

[Sketch of Jupiter] Jupiter 25mm + DT6
--Noticeably brighter
--slightly yellow?
very nice. Bands are visible & 3 moons huddle near Jupiter.

Page 2

2020 June 1 2:57 PM [Sic, should be AM] EDT
[sketch of Jupiter] Jupiter - 10mm Kellner
Great Red Spot! Very easily visible near the middle of the south equatorial band!

With the 80A filter I was able to spot subtly better contrast and through moments of exceptional seeing, I can report a small amount of exceptional detail, rendered onto the above drawing.

At this time I will begin imaging.

4:20 AM EDT
After taking lots of videos of Jupiter, Saturn, & Mars,
I went back to some visual work.
It's getting cold. After letting my eyes adjust, I could see very many stars and a very faint milky way was bifurcated due to the dust lanes, but I could see no detail.
[sketch of Mars] [sketch of Mars up close, Greatly Exaggerated!]
Mars is a nearly featureless dot with the 10mm+80A. Very faint polar cap and dark features may be present.

Page 3

2020 June 1 AM, cont.
[sketch] Alberio - 25mm DT6
Up in dobson's hole in a rich star field lies the Great Double Star Alberio. The brighter companion is a glorious gold and the secondary is a pale silver blue.

I wanted to get M57 but it currently lies almost exactly at the zenith, too difficult.

4:40 or 4:41

METEOR SPOTTED!
STARTLED ME!
MAG <0
Halfway between Vega & Cor Caroli, traveling in that direction!

Packing up @ 4:45 AM EDT.
Should have brought a jacket -- it got cold!
I intended to find h&x persei double cluster, M13 globular cluster, and M31 galaxy, but it was just too cold to hunt for DSOs!

Twas a good night, but I'll regret the damage to my sleep schedule--and the AAS virtual meeting is in the morning!
Still I got some good observations and lots of video to play with.