The Moon Occults Jupiter, 2004/11/9

Early this morning the old crescent Moon, Jupiter, and Venus formed a
striking celestial dogleg. As the morning progressed, the Moon closed
the gap with Jupiter on the way to crossing paths with the King of
Planets.

Two fellow ASH members and I were fortunate enough to witness the
occultation of Jupiter from the ASH Naylor Observatory. To do so we
had to dodge the fair weather clouds that littered the sky and nearly
occluded the occultation.

Instruments used were a 5" f/5 achromatic refractor, an 8" f/6 Hardin
Dob, a 12.5" f/6.5 Cave Newtonian, and a 17" f/15 classical
Cassegrain.

I saw the Moon grow close to the planet through the 17" and 5" and
watched the actual event through the 12.5" and the 8", using primarily
a 26mm Tele Vue Ploessl (79x) and a 20mm Meade Wide Angle (66x).
Seeing Jupiter being consumed gradually by the lunar surface beginning
at 11:05 a.m. EST (16:05 UT) was a blast. The Galilean satellites were
not visible, of course.

While we waited for Jupiter to reappear, we observed the Sun through
an 8" Celestron Orange Tube SCT, a 2" generic 32mm Erfle, and a full
aperture Orion glass solar filter. The large active region AR 10696
was quite impressive and was large enough to be seen without optical
aid but otherwise the sun seemed to be devoid of sunspots.

The clouds were not so kind for the reemergence of Jupiter at 12:09
p.m. EST (17:09 UT) but I did catch it about 6 minutes later through
the 5" achromat and a 16mm Brandon.

When it comes to daytime planetary occultations I suppose seeing half
of one isn't too bad.

Before I left the observatory I viewed the Moon, which was by then far
to the southwest, and Venus through the 5" and the 17" at 55mm
University Optics Ploessl (118x) but I couldn't locate Jupiter.

Dave Mitsky