Way back in 2013, while doing research for my Android astronomy app, I came across the blog of AstroBob, written by Bob King, an amateur astronomer. I quickly learned that it's a one-stop shop for all things happening in the night sky, and how to see them. I've been following it ever since.
Last Friday, AstroBob posted about a neat event happening that night. With a large enough telescope, you would be able to see the shadows of 2 of Jupiter's moons cross the face of the planet, and the Great Red Spot would be visible at the same time! That sounded really cool, like a triple feature!
It was totally clear that night, so around 10:45pm, I set up the telescope in the driveway and aimed it at Jupiter. Right on cue, shortly after 11pm, there were 2 shadows visible, along with the Great Red Spot. The shadows belonged to the moons Ganymede and Io. Ganymede's shadow was bigger and quite clear. Io's shadow was much smaller and harder to spot, but as it slowly moved closer to the center it was easier to identify. I could also make out several bands of clouds on Jupiter. Between the Great Red Spot, the cloud bands, and the 2 moon shadows, it was quite a sight!
I tried taking some pictures with my phone's camera, but as you can probably guess, they didn't turn out great. Still, you can easily see some of Jupiter's moons:
I also looked at Saturn through the scope and could easily see its rings. The camera couldn't, of course, but you can kind of tell from the shape that rings were there.
I was outside for a full hour watching the show. I got a number of mosquito bites, but, for once, it wasn't the mosquitoes that drove me inside, it was the skunk smell! I heard a rustling in the bushes behind me at one point, but didn't see anything. A bit later, the smell was unmistakable and only getting stronger, so I called it a night, packed up, and went inside.