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Hi, whereabouts are you observing from? I'm in Wiltshire and had set up all ready for a full night of imaging, but packed up after a few subs as I decided that the seeing was pretty poor and I was too tired to wait in the hope that it might improve...!

To answer your question, bad seeing makes the image very wobbly in the eyepiece and it is difficult to acheive sharp focus.

Gav.

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was bad in Doncaster to i could not get a sharpe image of jupiter could not see any moons at all

I find it a bit strange that you could see any moons. My seeing wasn't good but I could make out detail on the disc of Jupiter, just that I had to limit the mag to under x 100.

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Seeing here at 8.15 ish (still light) was lovely for Venus and Jupiter. Venus seemed to benefit enormously from the lighter sky and was very noticeably a rounded sphere (tho of course not circular due to waxing/waning - not sure how phases are labeled for Venus), and I had a *beautiful* view of the GRS. Great evening with these two. Once it turned darker, seeing seemed much iffier. Still, a nice view of the 'Cheshire Cat' and Flying Minnow in Auriga. Jupiter after dark was not very clear. But I am going to see how viewing it earlier in the evening goes - by yesterday's session, it seems the lightness of the sky may (stressing may) help with detail as the face is not as bright. Same with really seeing the spherical nature of Venus.

Or, I'm barking up the wrong tree! Wouldn't be the first time :)

Maybe seeing was simply better earlier.

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I think a front was coming in. I began observing early while it was still daylight as I knew the clouds were moving in later.

Jupiter at first appeared to be beautifully sharp, though a little lacking in contrast due to the bright sky background. As I began making a sketch the image began to deteriorate, so the end result was washed out.

Mike. :-)post-41880-0-83292400-1429474003_thumb.j

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Not the best conditions over here either (Norway)

Being spoiled with excellent seeing the past few weeks (+200x easy), it suddenly was rubbish last night. Had a quick session just minutes ago and it doesnt look promising at all. :sad: .

Rune

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You can judge just how bad the seeing is by how much the stars twinkle. Stars will always twinkle a bit but on night of bad seeing they twinkle more then they do on nights of good seeing. Planets are different...............they dont twinkle (as such). 

So if the stars are twinkling like crazy you know its a night of bad seeing and the planets will be more difficult to observe. If the stars are not twinkling so badly, then the planets will be easier to observe. 

Another factor to consider is transparency. 

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Generally speaking, if you have had really good images, with really good contrast, in your eyepiece before with the scope, and it hasn't been dropped down a flight of stairs or such, and now it's blurry and just plain yuck - you are safe to conclude the 'seeing' has gone south. Seeing is a insidious thing. The sky is looking clear as a bell. Winds are light and no gusts to indicate an unstable front cruising in. And you look through a telescope - and yuck-o!

This is the sort of unpredictable thing that people who fly about in airplanes know about - midair-turbulance. All is well and your reading your book one minute at 36,000 feet, the next thing you know, you are being thrown around like a ball in a pinball-machine. This is why passengers are advised to keep their seatbelts on at all times.

Clear Skies & Please Fasten Your Seatbelts,

Dave

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Generally speaking, if you have had really good images, with really good contrast, in your eyepiece before with the scope, and it hasn't been dropped down a flight of stairs or such, and now it's blurry and just plain yuck - you are safe to conclude the 'seeing' has gone south. Seeing is a insidious thing. The sky is looking clear as a bell. Winds are light and no gusts to indicate an unstable front cruising in. And you look through a telescope - and yuck-o!

This is the sort of unpredictable thing that people who fly about in airplanes know about - midair-turbulance. All is well and your reading your book one minute at 36,000 feet, the next thing you know, you are being thrown around like a ball in a pinball-machine. This is why passengers are advised to keep their seatbelts on at all times.

Clear Skies & Please Fasten Your Seatbelts,

Dave

Haha a good read. Thanks.

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Had a couple of clear nights in the last few days and I was really disappointed in how poor Jupiter looked after dark. It had been good around twilight but after dark it just wouldn't provide a clear image. Being new to the hobby I was of course then checking all my eyepieces under the light and convincing myself they must all be dirty as the focus seemed to come and go as it moved around in the eyepiece. After giving the cheap stock 10mm that came with my scope a clean as it was in fact quite grubby looking I had another look and Jupiter still looked terrible so I cam to the conclusion that this was indeed what people referred to as 'poor seeing'. I then fruitlessly searched for some DSO's for a couple before going back in. Could have a couple of clear nights coming up this week so hopefully it will improve

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Had a couple of clear nights in the last few days and I was really disappointed in how poor Jupiter looked after dark. It had been good around twilight but after dark it just wouldn't provide a clear image. Being new to the hobby I was of course then checking all my eyepieces under the light and convincing myself they must all be dirty as the focus seemed to come and go as it moved around in the eyepiece. After giving the cheap stock 10mm that came with my scope a clean as it was in fact quite grubby looking I had another look and Jupiter still looked terrible so I cam to the conclusion that this was indeed what people referred to as 'poor seeing'. I then fruitlessly searched for some DSO's for a couple before going back in. Could have a couple of clear nights coming up this week so hopefully it will improve

Yeah looks good for the next few days so will have another go.

Any ideas about DSO's? I'm not confident about seeing any in my light polluted back garden!

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I have what I would call moderate light pollution in my back garden, also having a refractor on an EQ mount doesn't help looking for things overhead. I've narrowed down a few that I think might be easier to find such as M95 and M96 but no luck. I'm going to take the scope to the in-laws farm right out in the country to try again in the next couple of days

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Don't think I have ever seen M95 or M96... DSOs that are relatively easy under LP include the planetaries like M57 and M27 and the brighter globs like M3 and M13. All the open clusters around Auriga are easy and very beautiful (M35-M38) although it is a bit late in the year for them now. I've also had luck with some galaxies from a city, specifically M81 and M82... M31 is easy even with a pair of binoculars.

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I read on the Jodrell Bank site that M95 and 96 are easy to find as you can pan across from Regulus using just right ascension, having locked the declination which is why I thought it might be easier. My problem is that I can visibly see where I need to look and can take stars as reference points, however when I look through the finderscope and everything is back to front, upside down and there are dozens more stars I am immediately lost so I have no idea where I need to be looking. 

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I read on the Jodrell Bank site that M95 and 96 are easy to find as you can pan across from Regulus using just right ascension, having locked the declination which is why I thought it might be easier. My problem is that I can visibly see where I need to look and can take stars as reference points, however when I look through the finderscope and everything is back to front, upside down and there are dozens more stars I am immediately lost so I have no idea where I need to be looking. 

That's exactly my problem- it'll take some practice I think to figure it out

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That's exactly my problem- it'll take some practice I think to figure it out

I can relate to finders being disorientating, my 9x50 (which has less FOV than my 10x50 bins, somehow) RACI finder is useless for figuring out where you are in a constellation because the stars that were once very distinct and noticeable are now just as bright as every other star! I probably should have folllowed the other half of the advice I got in a post I made a while ago and got a telrad!

But, if you can find jupiter with it:

Centre on jupiter with your viewfinder and move the scope to the right until you see a faint cluster of stars. Centre those in the viewfinder and look through the EP. You're looking at Praesepe! http://i.imgur.com/jJGZhL8.png

It's the only thing I managed to find with my RACI, and that's only because of its close proximity to Jupiter and jupiter's blinding brightness compared to everything else in the field.

Other than that, it's like trying to find a kneedle in a heystack.

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