It started clearing late last evening so I gave this a shot. I got
home late so I didn't have time to setup the C14 so I setup the N5
(Note to self: must build observatory). The air was very unstable,
Sirius was literally blinking out of view and the moon looked like it
was at the bottom of a pot of boiling water. However during some very
rare moments of decent seeing I did manage to pick up the moons in
front of Jupiter but I could not detect the eclipse itself. I tried a
variety of eyepieces from my 7mm Nagler (@175x) to a 25 mm plossl
(50x) the best views were from a Meade Super Wide 13.5mm eyepiece
(@90x). The best views of the moons occurred a little after 11:00 I
got a period of about 5 minutes with some ok seeing. I could see the
moons as kind of a figure eight shape or like a close double star
when racked out of focus. During the predicted time of the eclipse
the seeing was horrible and some high thin clouds began moving
through so I called it a night around 11:40. The one nice thing about
the N5 is that I had everything torn down and put away in less than
ten minutes. Not a great night but it was good to be out under the
stars, a bad night under the stars is better than a good night
infront of the TV.