dweller25

I just spent an hour trying to watch Europa’s shadow transiting Jupiter. I planned to sketch it but seeing was very poor when I started observing at 17:40 and still poor at 18:40 so I came back in for the night to warm up. Did not bother to do a drawing this time. Tomorrow night is clear so will try again at 17:20 when the GRS is central.

Well you learn something everyday 🤣

That’s surprisingly good 👍

Hello @SwiMatt, Given that everything has to fit into a backpack then a 70-80mm refractor would probably be the best option ? As already mentioned, Telescope Express do a really nice very light and short 72mm with FPL53 glass and a dual speed focuser ….. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p8866_TS-Optics-Doublet-SD-Apo-72-mm-f-6---FPL53---Lanthanum-Glass-Objective.html They also sell a great 80mm which is just a little bit longer and heavier….. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p8637_TS-Optics-Doublet-SD-Apo-80-mm-f-7---FPL-53---Lanthanum-Objective.html Good luck in your search 👍

Once upon a time there was a little girl called Goldilocks. One day Goldilocks was walking in the forest and saw an observatory. She knocked on the door and went inside. Nobody was there. Goldilocks saw three refractors so she decided to look through them. This 3” is too small and dim she said. This 5” is too heavy she said. This 4” is light, bright and shows good detail and is just right she said. And she lived happily ever after. The End 🙂

Hello @Ags I have also had this question and have tried a lot of Maks and SCT’s before settling down to my final folded type planetary scope. It is a Mewlon 180 and the reasons I settled on it are :- No corrector so it does not dew up 1/20th wave optics. Superb contrast - only an Intes 715 Mak was this good but it dewed up ! Excellent build quality Fairly light weight - I use mine on a Vixen GP Hope that helps.

Great sketches John, a good scope and good seeing 👍

Another raw eyepiece drawing of Jupiter. My skies had been totally clear all day so I put the scope out at 5pm to cool down Had dinner and went back out at 6:40pm to watch the double moon event of Io and Europa just about to disappear behind Jupiter as the GRS was coming into view. To be greeted by a 100% haze/thin cloud covered sky ! Jupiter could still be seen but it was dim, decided to do a quick drawing and go back in. Frustratingly the seeing was very calm and steady !

As others have said, leave it as it is and try it out. You may want to wrap it in reflectix to avoid having to cool it down

@Nikolai De Silva I would suggest before you change the collimation screws that you do a star test first to see if it needs adjusting. If it does here is what to do…..

😱🥴😩🤮🤪😁😂🤣

Another raw eyepiece drawing of Jupiter, with io just finishing transiting and it’s shadow following on behind on the planets “surface” Very windy conditions and highly variable seeing.

Great video @lukebl, I was out at the same time and conditions were tricky.

Looking forward to your images 👍

Very windy and poor seeing for me. Here is what I drew at the eyepiece.. the GRS had just faded away on the preceding limb.

Yes, Jupiter is huge, the GRS is 30% wider than the Earth !

io Jupiter transit start is 14:30 io shadow Jupiter transit start is 15:46 io GRS transit start is 16:20 io jupiter and GRS transit finish is 16:40 Io shadow Jupiter transit finish is 15:53

Nice youtube video 👍 The attached AVI file is not working for me.

It’s a bit windy this morning but hopefully it will reduce at Sunset…….

Is a star test the same ?

It should indeed, now changed @Stu, thanks 👍

Tuesday evening - maybe 🤞

This is different and the timing is perfect for potentially good seeing. io will be transiting the great red spot with its shadow on Jupiter at the same time.

90% of my gear is Japanese 🙂 9% is German 👍 My powepack is Chinese

Thanks Mike, I was hoping you might have been out. The views were better at dusk when the sky was not too bright but it seemed like a good idea to wait until the GRS was central 🤷🏻