2026-01-31
- Condition: VG4
- Location: Home, Spearfish: 44.49, -103.87
A nearly full moon prevents any serious attempt of gazing tonight (both lunar and DSO), but Soren has been talking lately about wanting to see the Great Red Eye on Jupiter. With Jupiter overhead and a quick lookup revealing that the red spot is visible right now we decided to head out and make a casual attempt at it.
6:30PM
- Target: Jupiter
- Scope: AT102ED
- Setting: 238x
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- Target: M 42, Orion Nebula
- Const: Orion
- RaDec: 05h35m -5.27
- Type: Diffuse Nebula
- Scope: ST-80
- Setting: 57x
Soren brought out the ST-80 and decided to look at the Orion nebula while I was getting the AT102ED centered on Jupiter. The nebula was hardly visible (due to the brightness of the moon), but he did catch θ1 and θ2 Orionis.
Once my scope was well centered on Jupiter Soren began to sketch that; the Great Red Eye was visible, but very small and not very distinguishable. One of the moons was orbiting behind Jupiter while we were observing and it was fun to see it slowly disappear.
Included above is Soren’s sketch of both Jupiter and M42.
7:05PM
- Target: M 45, Pleiades, Subaru, Seven Sisters
- Const: Taurus
- RaDec: 03h47m +24.7
- Type: Open Cluster
- Scope: ST-80
- Setting: 57x
As I was packing up the AT102ED for the night Soren turned his attention to the Pleiades and decided to sketch that. Despite the full moon, it was still fun to get out and see a few things together.