Oot and Aboot with Some Canadian Skeptic

Serendipity smiled upon me this morning. The night was muggy, mostly cloudy, and had about as charm as a graveyard. There were enough punctuated holes in the clouds that I thought it would be okay to lug out the telescope and see if I can snag a few crescent moon pics. I did, but while more clouds rolled over the moon, Jupiter opened up.

I wasn't planning on it, but I got a picture of Io transiting Jupiter! I didn't even think my technology could snag tiny Io as is transited in front of bright-as-hell Jupiter, but, there it is. In order to confirm that it wasn't a dust grain or something on the mirror or lens, I took about 30 pics from various positions of the field of view, and I also plugged in the exact time I took the pictures into Stellarium, and yes. It's Io. See?

This has been an abysmal summer for astronomy in central Ontario (at least in terms of weather cooperation), but ever so often things work out better than you planned.





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