John

Oh dear ! - clouded out now

It was very nice while it lasted though and many thanks to David for the "heads up" on this event

Still looking good here. Lots of cloud but, amazingly, a clear patch of sky where Jupiter is !

The sharply etched moon shadow emphasises the rather diffuse nature of the features on Jupiter's visible surface which look soft and subtle compared with the stark black shadow.

If you can keep your eyepieces a little warmer than the scope is (ie: in a bag / foam lined case) they won't dew or mist up.

Dew heaters are available for both finders and eyepieces although they are a fiddle to use with eyepieces as the heater has to be changed each time the eyepiece is. Better to keep the eyepieces slightly above outside temperature I think.

A DIY card / thin camping mat dew shield might work for the finder - something about 60mm long ?

I've got some thin clouds here but Jupiter is showing quite well through them. Callisto's shadow is properly on the disk now and, as the prediction said, pretty much right on the Great Red Spot. Looks like the pupil in a giant eye !

GRS colour is a bit subdued due to the thin clouds. Nice sight all the same

My most often cleaned eyepiece is my Nagler 2mm-4mm zoom. It has 10mm of eye relief but the eye lens is almost flush with the eyepiece top so it tends to pick up eyelash grease and dust easier than my other eyepieces that have 15mm - 20mm of eye relief.

Shadow of Callisto just showing right on Jupiter's limb now - like a tiny black "bite" out of the limb.

Some clouds here but currently Jupiter, the Moon and Saturn showing well. Contrast is really excellent. Actual seeing is a little "swimmy".

Hope enough clear patches are around later to show the Callisto shadow / GRS conjunction

Great report Dave

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Why the sad face John? If you’re happy with it, what’s the problem?

I thought that's what the emoticon meant - "what's the problem ?"

If there was a smiling one doing the same gesture I would have used that

I've bought and sold with the person concerned and met him a couple of times.

He saw an opportunity a few years ago and took it. I don't blame him for that.

When I've sold to him he has always paid the price that I'm asking promptly and the items I've bought from him have been exactly as described.

Where the price is not what I want to pay, from any seller, I simply don't shop there

I'm quite happy with the standard focuser on my Tak FC100-DL

Thanks David

Forecast is a bit dodgy here but I'll put a scope out anyway, just in case

50 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Got Trinity the Tak (FS128) out tonight after weeks of inactivity..

A very heavy dew tonight, (you can see the condensation on the scope tube) although the big dewshield did it's job and the objective stayed clear..

Dave

Nice to see a decently long dew shield on a refractor. Many are rather too short to do the job

I saw her though quite a lot of cloud cover.

More mundanely than a maiden, the area resembles a large number 3 to my eye, with a rather extended top loop

Probably less risky to explain to my other half than gazing a maiden with my telescope 

The GRS was nicely on show last night. It is smaller than I recall from previous years though.

Interesting to think that the GRS has an apparent diameter at it's widest point of around 7-8 arc seconds.

Had a look with my 100mm refractor tonight. Brightness still seems around mag 7. I looked carefully at the colour tint of the nova tonight and thought it looked a sort of pale terracotta hue. Subtle but it became slightly more apparent with added magnification.

I'm observing Jupiter with my 100mm refractor tonight through cloud that is just thin enough to make it worth observing, but I can't make out Ganymede's disk .......... it's still in Jupiter's shadow at the moment !

The 3 Galilean's that are showing do show slight variation in the apparent disk sizes at 225x though.

I'll wait for Ganymede to pop into view before packing in I think.

15 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Baader says the cloths are machine washable and I’ve found they are just like new after washing.

Me too

I'm glad you are pleased with your H-A scope views 😀

I've owned a PST (40mm) and a Lunt 50mm and been a little undewhelmed with the views to be honest. Maybe my expectations were too high or I had mediocre examples of those scopes ?

I tried a Lunt 100mm at the Lowell Observatory a couple of years back and that was pretty impressive

I only clean them when I see something that needs cleaning. Perhaps 3-4 times per year ?

I use the Baader Wonder Fluid applied with the Baader micro fibre cloth to clean mine, when they need it.

Eyepieces with short eye relief tend to need cleaning a little more often than those with longer eye relief I find. Most of mine have long eye relief.

The Stelledoppie database has an entry for it:

https://www.stelledoppie.it/index2.php?iddoppia=55381

25 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

Managed to get in the American Nebula as well, before the clouds starting coming in. 
@John the 4mm TOE gave some great detail on Jupiter tonight, if you ever get around to getting one. 😀

Glad you had a good session !

I found the Pentax XW 5mm superb on Jupiter tonight with the ED120

Nice barges coming around the disk on the N edge of the NEB towards the end of the session plus a couple of festoons of the S edge of the same belt as well.

No sign of any lasting marking from this impact though:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/383156-jupiter-impact-flash-discovery-20210913-223930ut/?tab=comments#comment-4139636

1 hour ago, IB20 said:

Just trying this now with the 80mm, it’s quite clear which moon is Ganymede but I can’t tell the others apart.

Ganymede is reported on SkySafari as 1.8 arcseconds, Callisto 1.6, Io 1.2 & Europa 1.0. Despite Callisto being closer in apparent size to Ganymede, I’m just not able to differentiate it from the smaller two moons tonight.

Similar result here tonight with the ED120 at 225x. Callisto just does not look as close to Ganymede's apparent diameter as it's listed figure suggest that it should

No chance to compare the 100mm / 120mm views tonight - too much cloud about !

It's cleared a bit here and the Jovian and Saturnian detail is showing really well with my non-exotic ED120 tonight

I'm seeing 7 belts, the two polar zones, GRS in the SEB hollow, suggestions of white patches / ovals in the southern hemisphere of the planet. Brown's, tans, creams and salmon pink. Nice stuff !

5 minutes ago, Dave scutt said:

Skies should have been clear tonight for a few hours😂.

Trying to test out my new ep on Jupiter 

Hide the new eyepiece and stick an old one in the focuser - the skies might clear then Dave

It's a similar story here if it's any consolation. I still have a scope out there but the chances of seeing anything through it look very slim indeed