It's been clear and cold in the Northeast lately, so with some warm boots, long underwe
ar and assorted
ar and assorted hand and head coverings I set up on the Portsmouth sidewalk in front of Starbucks for a couple of hours each evening for the past few nights.
Amazingly, it seemed like more people were interested in viewing through the scope than is typically the case in summer - almost 100% of people said sure and enjoyed the views. We looked at Jupiter on nights when I was out early, and Mars and the Pleiades for later events after Jupiter had set. I also took a peek at M42 when nobody was around, but due to the light-polluted sky it was less than impressive.
One of the Portsmouth parking meter readers (yes, the ones who give tickets) thanked me for giving back to the community, he has seen me many times in various spots around town. Jupiter's 4 moons were clearly visible, as was the jet stream blowing past the planet. Cloud bands were vaguely visible at moments when seeing steadied, but these moments were few and far between.
One other thing - it's exactly 400 years ago this week that Galileo recorded sketches of Jupiter's moons in his notebook, later publicized in his "Starry Messenger".
