TERRY Morris writes:

Thanks for writing about the Jupiter event. I own an 8 inch Newtonian Reflector on an equatorial mount (we plan to upgrade to a 10″ in the not too distant future). The kids and I have been looking at and studying the subject in question once or twice a week for the last month or so. Saturn is up as well, in Sagitarius (and Mars comes up during the early morning hours, from our line of sight), although its (Saturn’s) rings are not as favorably prominent as they have been in our past experiences viewing them through the telescope. One reliable test of a telescopes optics is whether or not they can resolve Cassini’s Division in Saturn’s rings.

By the way, Jupiter has four large moons (not just three) that may be easily seen through binoculars and small telescopes. On the night in question, we observed them all. If and when one or more of them is not visible through the aforementioned binoculars or small telescopes (to say nothing of larger telescopes like ours), it is because the moon(s) in question are either transiting Jupiter’s face (in which case the planet’s brightness washes out the moon(s) in question, or they are behind the plant from our line of sight. The great thing about 8″ optics vs. smaller apertures is that, on clear nights, you can actually see the shadow of the moon in transit cast on the face of Jupiter when in fact that is what is occurring. Jupiter’s “cloud belts” and the so called “Great Red Spot” are also very visible through our optics. On clear, cool nights such as we’ve had in recent weeks, this all makes for very interesting viewing. The kids eat it up like candy; they always want to draw or illustrate what they’re seeing through the lenses. Which of course I certainly encourage they do. I’m not a very good “astrophotographer,” nor am I really set up for it, or I’d send you some pics of what we observe during these sessions; our eldest son is pretty good at that, however, although his telescope is much inferior to ours. …

Laura writes:

Thank you for writing — and for the correction!

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