Venus and Jupiter

[jonathan]

Been slacking recently, missed a few clear nights so last night decided to get the 102 refractor out for a spin at the planets, I had seen Venus shining brightly in the West after sunset and wanted to get a glimpse before it disappeared.

Although the view over the houses was a bit shimmery with the turbulence, it was relatively easy to focus to a sharp outline showing perhaps a 2/3 phase, with a hint of shimmering colour in amongst the white of the disc.  I used my Pentax XW 3.5mm, perhaps its finest hour so far, with a moon filter to cut out some of the glare which worked very well, still nice and bright.

As Venus set behind a tree and roof tops I switched positions to observe Jupiter, and was quite pleasantly surprised at how steady the image was, being high up in the sky it was nothing like the shimmering view of Venus, more like a photograph, despite being directly over the majority of roof tops in the area.  Best viewing was definitely in the Celestron X-Cel LX 5mm, the Pentax was just that bit dimmer and showed some artifacts / fuzziness. 

Of Jupiter, I could make out two clear bands with some detail along their edges, with one or two fainter bands visible top and bottom; three moons in a line complimented this brilliant view, the best I have experienced of Jupiter so far.

Shortly after 10pm some patchy clouds began to roll across the sky and a heavy dew began to fall, there was nothing I could do as everything began to fog up so called it a night.

[nightfisher]

Jupiter was very nice last night, did you see the shadow transit

[meryck]

Jupiter has been simply fantastic over the last few weeks. I've been experimenting with a new planetary imaging camera, and the results have surpassed my expectations. Stacking the best 20% of 5000 frame clips has produced some very pleasing shots. Still quite new to imaging, but it's been a great time to play with camera settings. I tried over a dozen configurations over a single 2 hour period last week - and the seeing was rock steady the whole time. Managed to capture Europa's transit and the GRS at the same time, which was a first for me. I find the Meteoblue seeing forecasts are the most useful thing for picking good times to observe - pretty reliable for up to 2 days in advance.

[jonathan]

I didn't see a transit, assumed the other moon was on the far side.  Probably too small to notice in the view through the 102 refractor.  I would like to have a go with my 8SE while Jupiter is in a good position, though with it being such a slow scope I'm not sure if it will be better or even as good as the 102 refractor for clarity and sharpness.  If not as good then I might be selling an 8SE soon!

[ghostdance]

The GRS was superb for me earlier (before dark, just after 8pm) - the white 'edging' (?) around the Spot was a treat to see so clearly. Similarly (in light skies) Venus appeared as obviously spherical (not of course a round disc due to the phase). Usually I find it a bit too bright, but in near dusk it was a beautiful sight to see. I gained a real sense of it as a *planet*, if that makes sense.

More of these early to mid evening sessions for me!