first sighting of Jupiter's red spot.

[The Flinty Fox]

Hi everyone.

Had my first look at the red spot last night, tried on Sunday but seeing wasn't good.

Was at work looking at skysafari and noticed that the red spot was due to transit about 8 o clock, and as the forcast was good i had to have another try.

Left my scope to cool for about one hour then set up about quarter past eight. First tried 75x and already i could see things were better than last Sunday so i tried 125x, still looking good and i clould already see hints of the red spot, but Jupiter was asking for more, normally i struggle to get above this. So out it came, the 4mm, and at 187.5x and some steady focusing i looked.

At first it was a bit blurry as expected but the seeing settled and i could see it, quite cleary, moving towards the left of the planet. I sat and watched as the detail came and went, but as far as i was concerned it was a deffo sighting. Tried barlowing the 10mm with the 2.25 baader but for some reason the view was better using the 4mm. Think this was my best viewing of the planet. Very pleased.

I will be doing this again.

Here is a drawing tonight which i did from memory so it may not be exact but pretty close.

Thanks Paul.

Can't download file will try again in a bit.

[The Flinty Fox]

[DougM43]

I've tried to see it on many occasions but on the few times the seeing has been very good it must have been out of view, it's quite high on my must see list, well done.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on that sighting. Nice sketch too

[stepping beyond]

TFF, I  feel your excitement, I get that way to every time I get out to view or image. I 'm pretty green at AP, after imaging the moon for 2 yrs. with disabilities that slow me down but, they don't stop me from enjoying . Kudos ! the GRS is pretty allusive for me but, I have seen it , just not a lot.

[Andyp71]

Oh wow! Thanks for the sketch Flinty!

You answered a question I was about to post on the forum about where one actually sees the red spot.  I caught it a couple of weekends ago and was difficult to stand still observing because I was so excited.  I didn't get a lot of detail, but I definitely knew it was there.

However I'm used to seeing pictures of it in the lower right corner, but I saw this just where you drew yours - in the upper left quadrant.  So your sketch helps to confirm for me that I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing! Cool!  Thank you!!

There was also a transit from one of the moons - I don't know which one.

I'm guessing that the black round circle that I saw was actually the moon shadow on Jupiter and not the moon itself?  There was only 3 moons visible off Jupiter.

Great work Paul.  Thanks for sharing.

AndyP

[The Flinty Fox]

Hi Andyp.

I take it you are using a newtonian scope as the image will be inverted, anyway thanks glad it helped.

Managed to see it again last night, totally by chance though as i didn't know there was another transit going (had a look on skysafari just to be sure). The seeing must of been better than last time as this time the red spot seemed a bit easier to see and also in COLOUR!!!. Yes colour, don't think I've ever seen colour on Jupiter before but the spot did show a pinky colour with the two bands showing as dark brown and light.

Well done on the moon transit I've only ever seen one, I'll have to check out some more sometime.

Cheers Paul.

[Northern Soul man]

Hi ya Paul - nice 1 its a nice thing to look for, most of the time the seeing just won't allow really good views of the GRS but with a little patience the amount of detail you can tease out ofJupiter on the better nights of seeing is un believable it takes just a little time to get settled at the EP i just get lost in it all, just knowing your looking at another planet,from the Earth in real-time, hundreds of millions of miles away and the detail you can see from the light reflected off a couple of mirrors amazes me.

Paul