10:30pm

Tonight’s “wiggly” atmosphere prevented us from enjoying the sharp views of Jupiter that I saw on Monday, but at least we had some kind of a view. Three moons were easily visible; Europa was traversing Jupiter at the time, but of course we weren’t able to see its shadow (I can hardly wait till we get a real telescope that will allow us to see the shadows!).

Mars and Saturn were long gone by the time I got home, but Rich said that he had been unable to find them earlier in the evening anyway due to cloud cover.

3:45am (Friday)

The moon was up and we spent some time sitting in the middle of the yard exploring all the craters and mountains we could see. I pointed out the Apennine Mountain Range just crossing the terminator. Due to its elevation it’s actually visible slightly beyond the terminator, and you can even see this with the naked eye if you look closely. We need to find a good lunar map now so we know what we’re looking at, and so we can plan what we want to search for!

Jupiter was not visible at all at this time of morning.