Due to the low altitude of Jupiter from the UK in 2006 (it gets even lower for the next few years!), I decided to attempt a short trip further south. I eventually decided to go to St Augustine, Florida because it is a beautiful city (the oldest in the USA), has wonderful beaches and is situated at a latitude of only 29 degrees North. This meant that Juputer would be about 45 degrees high in the sky, compared to the 24 degrees from the UK.

I wanted to take my Celestron C-11 telescope with me, but did not want to have to pack up my heavy Losmandy G-11 mount, tripod and counterweights. I contacted a friend, Jim Phillips from Charleston, South Carolina who kindly let me use one of his splendid Astro-Physics mounts. All I had to do was swing by on my way down to Florida and collect the fantastic AP1200 mount.

Sue and I flew out to Atlanta on 20th June, drove to Charleston, met Jim and collected the mount, and then drove to St. Augustine for a six night stay.

Unfortunately, the Florida weather did not cooperate! Images were only taken on the first two nights. I didn't really feel that I did justice to the excellent Florida seeing conditions as I was still settling in and getting used to the hot conditions. However, I did obtain my best ever images of the planet, and had a great holiday at the same time!