February 27, 2004

On Friday night, I set my sights on Venus.  The "evening star" was brilliant.  I could see some ripples on the planet that appeared to be cloud banks.  Usually, features like this are hard to see on Venus.  Venus was half or nearly half illuminated.  Mars was very dim and I could see no surface detail.  I could tell that it was in a gibbous phase but that's about it.  Next, Saturn was still amazing.  I could see Titan and possibly Encladeus.  The rings were visible in great detail.  I could make out the Cassini Division.  I guess it does help to wait for Saturn to get high in the sky.  Finally, I got my first good look at Jupiter this year.  I could see 3 of the 4 Galilean moons.  I even watched Io slip behind Jupiter.  It slipped behind the planet in less than a half hour.  I could make out cloud bands on Jupiter but I could barely see the Great Red Spot.  That was about it for that night.  The next day, I tried to find Venus in the daylight, but had no luck.  I'll try again later in March.

March 7, 2004

On Sunday night I saw four planets.  I first observed Venus which was low in the west around 9 a.m.  I could still tell that it's about half illuminated.  No cloud patterns were visible as there was too much of our own atmosphere obscuring the view.  Next was Mars...still not very impressive.  All I could see was a reddish/brown disk 2/3 illuminated.  Next was Saturn.  I could see Titan and possibly two other moons.  I could clearly make out the Cassini Division and cloud patterns in Saturn's atmosphere.  The greatest look of the night was at Jupiter.  I saw the 4 big ones as well as ripples in the cloud bands.  I could not see the Great Red Spot.  The sky was so clear that the 4 moons looked incredibly clear...more like disks and not just points of light.