Hi David,

>My family went recently to the Atlanta Fernbank Observatory to look through their telescope in the early evening (but before dark) at Venus and Jupiter. At 270X magnification we could see Jupiter's stripes very well and also saw three of its moons.
>
>Stepping away from the telescope and looking back at the sky, I could barely see a tiny dot of light where Jupiter was. That was my first look through a powerful telescope and I think I'm hooked now.
>
>We, of course, got a great look at the almost-full moon, including seeing some of the mountains along the dark edge and also a crater with a small mountain in the middle (supposedly from volcanic activity after something hit the surface).
>
>That was a really fun and educational evening.

Sounds wonderful...it's been a long, long time since I've looked through a good telescope.

My regular old binocs are better than the naked eye, and fun, at times.

J