The weekend of JOVE...and the our celestial neighbour our moon

The weekend is here again and this weekend I devoted some time to scrutinizing good old Jove. Jupiter is at opposition on the 21st of September and will sparkle at magnitude -2.9, and its equator will span 49.9". WOW did I also mention that it will shine bigger and brighter on that day than it has in almost 50 years. BIG incentive to get out under the moonlit skies (the moon will be close to full, or full by the 21st!). Had planned to get out on Friday night but lil bub S went to sleep at 11pm, plus the skies were clouded out...bummer. Good thing the skies cleared out by about 9pm on Saturday night and I got some great views of jove...and I also devoted sometime to our moon. Have not looked at our satellite since moving here from BrisVegas. Jove was okay and exhibited a rather large disk. Observed the NEB as the SEB is still missing, together with two other belts to the north of the NEB. The great red spot was off to the side and almost out of view.

And how could I carry the scope down a flight of stairs without looking at some DSO! Observed planetary nebulae, M57, M27, the blinking planetary in Cygnus and the blue planetary in Pegasus under moonlit skies with the NPB filter. Then snuck in some views of the great Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and its satellite galaxy M32. The views from my light polluted observing site was actually quite nice. Used the 20mm Expanse in the C6 for the best views. I did try out the Orion Skyglow filter and it did bring out more of the galaxy (who says galaxies don't benefit...well maybe it was just the added contrast with the filter). Views were nothing like my drawing above and only the nucleus of the galaxy was visible. Finished off the night with superb views of the terminator region of our moon. On a side note I observed old Jove last weekend and the great "salmon" (not red at all) was visible at about 10.30pm local LA time.