Jupiter!

Took the advice of Terry and went looking for Jupiter tonight. Went to Sky & Telescopes Sky Chart function, found Jupiter, checked my compass for proper orientation and then stepped outside. Set up my tripod, found what I thought was Jupiter, set my binoculars onto the tripod, aimed and looked. Awesome! Jupiter on the first try! And four of her moons as well. I saw Jupiter! The moons are as follows: On the left of Jupiter, that's Ganymede. Then three, in order of closest to farthest, are Io, Europa, and Callisto. Cool!

I do have a question for anyone who is an astronomy buff though. When viewing Jupiter, I had a red "flare" which emanated from the planet. It was sort of like a halo around the planet (though it was brightest at the top and bottom of the planet) and was clearly a viewing abnormality. Is this to be expected? I'm using Celestron 15 x 70 Skymaster binocs. Thanks for any answers people can provide.