Astronomy Notes 4/14/2020 AM

PAGE ONE
APRIL/14/2020 - 5:30 AM EDT - Very good seeing - no clouds.

[sketch of moon, planets, telephone pole, and horizon]

The Moon and 3 planets are up in the sky. Color is difficult to discern but it looks like the leftmost one is slightly reddish. Vega is nearly overhead with the Summer Triangle and Cygnus, but the true stars of the show tonight are the planets! I have about an hour before daylight, so time to start with Jupiter.

[sketch of Jupiter and moons] Jupiter (DT6/25mm Eyepice)

♃ is clearly visible as a bright disk, with its four moons all to one side. The moon second from the right appears noticeably brighter than the others.

[sketch of Jupiter up close] ♃ (w/ 9mm EP & no. 80A blue filter)

With the blue filter, a striking amount of detail pops out. The bands are much clearer, but also the dark polar caps jump out and tiny spot details peek through when the seeing is just right.

[small darkened sketch of Jupiter] w/ Red filter No. 25, Jupiter is very dark and the banding is very faint. Only the closer 2 moons are visible at all.
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PAGE TWO
5:53: The sky is getting light. I'll save Moon for last.

[terrible drawing of Saturn] Saturn w/ 25mm.
Saturn is small but the gap between surface & ring is visible. Titan to right?

[slightly better drawing of Saturn] Saturn w/ 9mm w/ No. 80A filter
The filtered Saturn reveals a crisp boundary between planet and ring that my dull pencil and unsteady hand can not capture, and a faint band on the planet.

[drawing of a dot with diffraction spike cross] Mars w/ 25mm
Mars is a bright orange dot w/ the 25mm eyepiece.

[drawing of a dot] Mars w/ 9mm w/ No.80A
The blue filtered Mars is a very slightly gibbous shape with nothing but the faintest hint of a dark spot of detail in the middle.
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PAGE THREE
14/APR/2020 -6:00
Getting very light out now, sky is almost enough to read by.
[picture of a tiny dot] Mars, 9mm + red filter No.25.
Blank (read: featureless) red dot.
6:10
[sketch of Mars] Mars, 9mm filter.
Two dim stars near Mars. Almost certainly not moons :)
Very faint hint of a bright spot that could be a polar cap?

It is now bright enough to read from the sky. I want to quickly, without drawing, look at J & S again.
-For a split second I could split part of the edge of the Cassini Division in S's ring.

[large sketch of Jupiter] Jupiter (Much larger than true apparent size)
Showing some observed detail.
I also swear it seems like I can tell the closest one to J is yellowish in color, very slightly. Hypothesis: current order left to right = Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto.
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PAGE FOUR
14/APR/2020
6:20- Sky is bright enough to read by. Mars is invisible, Saturn is difficult to see, and Jupiter and Moon still shine brightly. No other stars can be easily seen, but Vega is there if you stare straight up at it. Lots of bird song!

The Moon in its waning phases are so often inaccessible to me. But now with my telescope, up so early, I can finally see a 3rd quarter moon and all the shadowy topography therein.

6:31 Seeing conditions have gotten much worse, presumably due to approaching sunrise. It took me a few minutes to set up my telescope again further from trees, but now I can finally enjoy the 3rd Quarter Moon!

On the 10th, the near-super-moon didn't fit neatly into the Eyepiece Field of View, now it does, highlighting change in apparent size.

I wish I had a better pencil!

[illustration of Moon detail]
-Notch on terminator
-so much maria here.
-rugged mtn's (mountains)

6:30 Moon going behind trees again
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PAGE FIVE
6:40 PM EDT 14/APRIL/2020
Sun hasn't risen yet but will very soon. I can very easily read under the sky glow. Jupiter is visible still, but only just, and since the Moon is going behind the trees again, I think it's time to pack up and watch the sunrise. (WITHOUT A TELESCOPE!)
It's a beautiful morning and I'm glad I came out early to see it and the planets. I look forward to Mars opposition and the hope that I'll see more than an orange dot, and indeed all the oppositions of the bright outer planets. This is the first day during the COVID-19 isolation that I really feel like I started the day off right.