Sky gazing

Relia woke up a couple of time tonight, just enough to wake me completely. Around 3a I decided that it might be worthwhile to check out the backyard sky and see if anything bright was out there. Sure enough there was something nice and shiny high and to the south-east.
I crept up and quietly got the telescope down. Probably mentioned that I'm trying to find times to use it. It set up nicely on the back steps and with a little effort I trained it on the shiny bit. There was a small disk of light with three nearby points in a line with it and another, fainter just below that line. After my eye settled a bit I could detect two bands on the disk. It was Jupiter and the three points were Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.
This is essentially the same sight that Galileo saw 500 years ago with his telescope. The points near the planet were uncharted and when he looked again over a period of days they moved but always stayed near the planet. He had discovered Jupiter's moons and started modern astronomy on its course.
Came in and checked a sky chart to see if I could figure out that fourth point near Jupiter. It seems I was in luck. In one simple view and without any planning I got to see both Jupiter and Uranus at the same time. Very, very cool.

Relia, thanks for waking me up.