Jupiter Early This Morning

[digger1978gee]

Decided last night after some lunar observing , that i would set my alarm for 5:00am  and give Jupiter a go. Forecast looked great, so woke up 5:00 and set the scope up in the back yard.

Eventually got settled and got Old Jupes in my sight. Viewed it at low mag first off (60x 25mm plossl) and had a great view of the planet and the 4 satelites around it. Could just about make out some black lines in the EP.

The seeing probably wasn't the best as I started observing straight away without giving the scope time to cool (was pushed for time and couldn't wait tbo lol). 

Next up I ramped up the mag to (125x 12mm EP). The view was pretty good considering the heavy light pollution and rushed set up. I manged to make out the black lines more clearly and could just about make out the great spot.

All in all was pretty happy , so cant wait to get to a dark site and give it another bash, hopefully see the planet more clearly without the light pollution.

Any tips on getting the most out of viewing this planet. Eg Filters Best mag powers out of experience.

Thanks James

[StarSapling]

I find that my yellow filter really improves the contrast on Jupiter, revealing more fine detail.  My green filter works well also, but tends to dim the image more than I like.  My avatar image is Jupiter using my green filter at 91x through my 90mm f10 refractor, taken afocally on a night with less than good seeing.

[digger1978gee]

Thanks mate give the yellow filter a go.

[dweller25]

Check out the Baader Neodymium filter

[todd8137]

There's many good filters ,that will give great views can not wait to catch it one nights

Pat

[Stu]

Decided last night after some lunar observing , that i would set my alarm for 5:00am and give Jupiter a go. Forecast looked great, so woke up 5:00 and set the scope up in the back yard.

Eventually got settled and got Old Jupes in my sight. Viewed it at low mag first off (60x 25mm plossl) and had a great view of the planet and the 4 satelites around it. Could just about make out some black lines in the EP.

The seeing probably wasn't the best as I started observing straight away without giving the scope time to cool (was pushed for time and couldn't wait tbo lol).

Next up I ramped up the mag to (125x 12mm EP). The view was pretty good considering the heavy light pollution and rushed set up. I manged to make out the black lines more clearly and could just about make out the great spot.

All in all was pretty happy , so cant wait to get to a dark site and give it another bash, hopefully see the planet more clearly without the light pollution.

Any tips on getting the most out of viewing this planet. Eg Filters Best mag powers out of experience.

Thanks James

Sounds like a good session. With your scope it's well worth letting it cool for 30 to 45 minutes if coming out of a warm house, the views will be much better.

I tend to find that between x150 and x180 works very well on Jupiter on decent nights. Sometimes the seeing just won't allow any detail to be seen so if that's the case, look at something other than planets!

Generally light pollution doesn't affect planetary observing so much as the objects are quite bright. The key things to get the best out of the scope are cooling, collimation, good seeing and patience. By patience I mean spending time at the eyepiece catching the moments of excellent seeing and really teasing out the detail.

I find a Baader Neodymium filter works very well on Jupiter and Mars, not so well on Saturn, worth getting in my opinion.

Finally, I checked what was visible at the time you observed and the Great Red Spot was indeed on the disk, but I also noticed that there was a shadow transit occurring, did you see a jet black small dot on the surface on the north of the Northern Equatorial Belt?

[des anderson]

Nice report,as everyone as said before filters,and more filters all good advice ,the 6 se needs cooling down a bit,but to go out at 5 o clock well done I`m a late riser....Des