I was out at my observatory earlier this evening (Sunday, February 24). The moon was pretty bright, and their were some high, thin clouds, so looking at galaxies was out of the question. I decided to take a look at Jupiter with my AP 130mm f/8. I could see a shadow of a moon crossing the planet, but was unable to see the moon. So I turned on Guide7 to find out which moon it was, and where the moon itself was so that I might have a chance to see it. Turns out it was Europa, and it was just clearing the planet as I got back to the telescope. It would have been a real challenge to see Europa in front of Jupiter, as it is the smallest of the Galilean satellites. I have detected the larger ones before. In any case, it's shadow was lagging behind it by a few hours, and so I was able to watch it drift across the planets face. The shadow is quite easy, black on white. The moon itself is much more difficult because of the lack of contrast.
Using Guide7 I noticed that Callisto was being eclipsed by Jupiter and was scheduled to come out of Jupiter's shadow about 9:30, so I decided to watch if it the clouds stayed thin, which they did. Guide7 told me the exit from the shadow began at 9:30:56 CST. I first detected Callisto about 9:31:18. It was halfway out of the shadow at about 9:37. I put in a high power eyepeice (my 6mm Brandon with the Dakin Barlow gives about 400x) to see if I could see the "half-moon" shape. The other three Galilean moons were round orbs, in contrast to a 9th magnitude star in the field that was a "point." Callisto looked "funny," i.e., not round, but I cannot honestly say I was able to see a half-moon shape. Maybe if the air had been a little more steady. Callisto cleared the shadow at about 9:44, by which time it was looking like a small round orb.
Pat Madden


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]