Jupiter and Sagittarius

The main object of my session was to observe Jupiter, now at its maximum altitude to the South in the evening sky. The view of the giant planet was magnificent. The cloud bands were visible in some detail. The North Equatorial Bands were more pronounced and the South Polar Region was darker than the North. The Great Red Spot had just passed the central meridian and was moving to the West. The moons were all to the West, Io and Ganymede close to the planet, Europa further out and Callisto close to its greatest elongation.

I also viewed the nearby M4, which is close to the bright orange-red star Antares. I could resolve it with a magnification of 120 but unfortunately it is swamped by light pollution close to my South horizon.

With Sagittarius now well above the horizon, I took the opportunity of viewing some of its DSOs. The M8 Lagoon Nebula and the open cluster NGC6530 looked fantastic through the UHC filter with the dark lane in the nebulosity clearly visible.

Just above the Lagoon is the Trifid, fainter but visible through the UHC filter. I followed a trail through the Sagittarius star cloud M24 up to M17 the Omega (or Swan) Nebula. This is another magnificent nebula with some structure visible through the filter. I went up to M16. The cluster was visible but I found the Eagle Nebula, of Pillars of Creation fame, rather faint.

Other objects I viewed were the M27 Dumbbell Nebula, the M57 Ring Nebula and the M11 Wild Duck Cluster.