Bob Jardine wrote:
>
> Observing Report -- Montebello -- 22 April 2004 (Thursday)
[snip]
> I think the seeing on Wednesday was perhaps the worst I have ever seen.
> Jupiter would periodically fuzz out completely, then swell up (I swore
> it was 2X its normal size, but I've been known to exaggerate;
I've seen it that bad, and even worse! I arrived a bit late at a
school; the people already set up were trying to show Saturn and
Jupiter. They were more or less indistinguishable. There was no trace
of Saturn's ring.
This might have been expected if we'd been looking across a heated
swimming pool, but both planets were well up, in a clear sky. It had
been a warm but not hot day.
The worst case I've ever seen was of Jupiter at 305x. A passenger jet
plane flew directly across the planet, which utterly vanished! It took
perhaps half a minute to realize that the irregular glow that filled
much of the field was Jupiter! Yes, this is a pathological case.
Clear Skies!
-- Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical Association <a href="http://www.svpal.org/~jvn/ ">JVN's home page</a>Received on Tue Apr 27 00:49:09 2004