PeterStudz

Sorry, not sure what happened here. Please ignore. Maybe too many mince pies!

Thanks! I’ve spent hours on Jupiter and generally the seeing has been poor for some time now. There’s been plenty of people mentioning this in the imaging section. On occasion it’s been frustrating with moments of good seeing, sometimes a few seconds to a few minutes of good seeing and then back to being fuzzy. But I have to say that on this night - 12th December - it was the best I’ve had since early Autumn. I’m surprised no one else mentioned it but I was probably lucky in my location, Southampton, with a clear cloudless sky. My advice, as you also say, is keep trying. You’ll eventually get a good night!

I do know that. Sorry if I didn’t make that clear! Just trying to say that you should be able to see the bands and enjoy Jupiter etc without buying a lot of stuff. And like you I haven’t found filters helpful. I don’t own a laptop, so ‘proper’ planetary imaging is out for me, although I prefer straightforward more traditional observation anyway.

This is basically what I prefer and do too. I have an 8” Dob and have tried coloured filters on Jupiter and cannot see any benefit. Eg a blue filter doesn’t seem to bring out any more detail and just makes the planet, well, blue. And I don’t find a variable polarising filter any use. Although I do find it helpful on Mars and Venus. I’d also add that for Jupiter and the bright planets do NOT get eyes adapted to the dark. Your eyes are poor at seeing colours and colour contrast when use to the dark. When observing Jupiter I often look at a bright light (like my phone screen) or go inside for a break/coffee. I’m in an urban environment I find that a simple dew shield (you can make one from black foam from a camping mat) useful in keeping out stay light. Spend a good time observing. I’ll can go around 3 hours on Jupiter, especially if something interesting is happening, eg a shadow transit. I do enjoy those! For a Newtonian make sure that it’s well collimated. Form some reason some eyepieces have better colour contract and show colours better than others. I’ve noticed that the 12mm BST StarGuider is decent in this respect. Using a 2x Barlow to give 6mm still retains this aspect. After practice you will get use to nudging in order to keep things in view. After a while it becomes second nature and you hardly notice it. As suggested a wide angle eyepiece will help. However, for the future (and if you have a Dob) maybe consider an EQ platform. I made an EQ platform for much less than the price of good hyper wide angle eyepiece. I followed the great guide ‘10” Equatorial Platform for Dummies’ in the ‘DIY Astronomer’ section in this site and it cost me about £85, although I already had some of the bits. It’s fine for smaller 6”-8” Dobs too. Now planets etc stay in the FOV without constant nudging. When trying to use a camera it is possible to record both the bands and moons by playing with exposure/brightness. Sure, if you process the image further the moons can be lost. To illustrate this I’ve attached a short animated GIF from a video taken on 12th December. The little dot bottom right is Europa. This was recorded using a basic iPhone camera via the stock iPhone camera app. Adjustments & crop made in the stock camera app. No fancy processing, editing or stacking. Out of interested, I used a BST StarGuider 3.2 mm for x375 plus the camera x2 zoom. Far too much for the then average seeing conditions, but you can still see the bands and details. The GIF process looses some resolution too but it still does a good job of giving an idea of what I could see through my 8” Dob. Mind, visually I could make out more. Just about everyone has a smartphone these days so it’s something most can do.

Chucking it down here with heavy rain forecast throughout the night. Howling wind too. For me I think the chance of seeing this tonight is zero ☹️

I agree with what @PeterC65 has said above. And although I haven’t got these telescopes I did start off with something roughly the same size. And from my journey I soon (about 7 months) wanted to upgrade the tripod. The aluminium tripods for the Skymax 127 (EQ3-2 or AZ-GTi) are adequate but they will wobble. So I splashed out on a nice robust steel tripod - no more wobbles. And that was just the start!…

I was visually observing Jupiter last night. But for me seeing was very poor, so I suspect that was it. Looking at the forecast there was a screaming jetstream over the southern half of the UK which would explain the poor seeing.

I have yet to see Mercury. Although I’ve only really been into astronomy for 3 yrs now, the view from my garden suffers from trees so anything low can be problematic. However, looking at this I do have a chance between the 2nd & 14th January. Let’s hope for clear skies!

I’ve had lots of experience using a smartphone to take images but any live view of the planets is going to be disappointing. Even with a dedicated planetary camera a good planetary capture also requires stacking and post-processing on a computer (PC, laptop, Mac) for a decent final image. A smartphone will get decent live images of large bright objects with good contrast - basically the moon and the sun (if there are sunspots) - but that’s about it. Anything else will also require editing and processing. Worth mentioning that Saturn is now low and will soon disappear from the nights sky. Not practically back until the beginning of August 2024. By then the rings will be very edge on, so not the best view. Jupiter around until late February but after that you’ll have to wait until August too. All of astronomy, whatever you do, requires patience, practice and time.

I’m in Bortle 7 and after 3 yrs of doing this we aren’t bored. And don’t forget holidays to a dark/darker site. My daughter was 9 yrs when we started and there’s a big difference between 6 & 9! Of course it depends on the person/child but Alice is a very outdoors person which has helped - eg camping, camping in the garden which she loves anyway is taken to another level with stargazing. She does use binoculars too. But what I we found helpful was a second pair. I got something cheap for £25 secondhand (actually they aren’t bad!) so that I could direct the star hop. Works well, is more fun and saves the faff/irritation of loosing target when you pass them back and forth.

In my daughter’s school they are not allowed to bring phones into school. They use Yondr pouches which are secure and block cell phone signals. It’s a brilliant idea & works well… https://www.overyondr.com

I might make a proper reply but it’s Christmas Eve and I’m busy. However, I do know what @LaurenceT means. I have a keen 12 yrs old daughter who started out with me when she was 9. We have used a mobile as a tool in order to see more and/or see things that would otherwise not be possible from our Bortle 7 garden. That doesn’t mean that she can’t do anything without looking at a phone screen. She far prefers looking through the eyepiece. In fact I was very amused to her response to astrophotography (after she found out how it was done) as “those fake pictures” 😀

He mentions “a=b” earlier in the thread with a link to his guide which explains it…

Like you I prefer viewing the moon without a filter even though it’s so bright. However, I have one of these and find it to be excellent when observing Mars and Venus, especially Mars where it definitely helped in bringing out the subtle features. I spent quite so time with my daughter, viewing Mars without any filter, various colour filters plus this variable polarising filter and we both agreed that this one could make a significant difference.

Funny how some people get this straightaway and others don’t. I can think of two examples. One where my daughter had a friend over in the summer for a sleepover. They’d already done similar before so they knew roughly what it was about. I’d set the telescope out and gone to bed for a a while as Saturn & Jupiter weren’t up until about 2am. The girls were so excited that they couldn’t sleep and I got a text telling me to “get up we want to see the planets”. Mind, some of that could have been down to the promise of hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows! Or when I had an old university friend staying over at the weekend. He had never looked through a telescope before. But when I showed him Saturn & Jupiter I couldn’t get him away from the eyepiece. Continued observing for over 2 hours, mostly Jupiter, as Saturn was starting to get low. I was going to try some other targets but soon realised that there wasn’t any point.

@Mr Spock is spot on. Someone on here once said that “astronomy is a hobby that rewards patience”. Something that has stuck in my mind ever since because it’s so true.

As @John says. I use to think that I was a bit “keen” getting up to observe Jupiter at silly o’clock during the last two summers, but some of the best views I’ve had have been as the sun was coming up and the sky not completely dark. And at the beginning of this year, when we had some of my daughter’s friends over, we managed to locate and observe Jupiter in the late afternoon. Watched as it slowly got dark. Some of the best views I’ve had. And NOT getting eyes use to the dark. You are looking at something with colour and something with subtle colour contrast. For that you need the cone cells in your eyes working. I often look at a light (like my phone screen) from time to time. Or go back inside to make a coffee etc. When back out the difference can be surprising. Having the telescope cooled. My 8” Dob needs around an hour for planetary. Observing for lots of time - but I’m like that anyway. I’m not one for looking at lots of targets in one night.

Don’t worry. It can be confusing at first but you’ll get there. As someone said - it’s a bit like learning to ride a bike - sooner rather than later you’ll get the hang of it and wonder why it was once such a faff. I started out collimating less than 3 yrs ago. I had a gifted 8” Dob that needed some work and as a complete beginning I had to completely strip it down to just a tube, fix and modify some things, then put it all back together. Initially very scary but I got there in the end. If you still have issues then @bosun21 offer of help sounds like something not to be missed! I think that if someone who knows what they are doing shows you the procedure firsthand it’s a lot more obvious than any online guide, text or video.

I’ve been very busy and was lucky to not have to get up that early the next day. And for once seeing was actually quite good! Maybe I was lucky with the weather here in Southampton, but I didn’t see/notice any other reports or anything in the imaging section of this site. The jetstream was out of the way, just, and the sky was clear for the time being. I setup the Dob at about 8pm and left it to cool. By 9:00pm Jupiter was nice and high and looking through the telescope immediately noticed that colours and colour contrast was good and the image nice and sharp. The GRS was also swinging into view. I could get magnification up to x240 before things started to go fuzzy. My daughter also joined me too. I’ve been using the excellent graphics initially posted by @Chandra in this thread to identify features. I could easily make out banding in the SPR, as well as minor details around the orange GRS. Might just be me and the conditions, but the GRS seemed a little bigger. The SEB had some details too and I could make out a few blue-ish projections & festoons in the EZ. The NEB has been active recently and had some interesting details and knots including a rift at about 45% that almost, but not quite, dissected the belt. It was bounded by a reddish-brown stripe. Visually very obvious. Couldn’t make out much in the NPR, apart from a dark band going part way across the disc. Took a few smartphone videos before taking a short break. At about 10:15pm Ganymede emerged from behind Jupiter. Always nice seeing one of the moons do this and looking at the other 3 it was clear that Ganymede was the biggest. By about 11pm clouds started to appear so called it a night. But some of the best views of Jupiter I’ve had since early September. Location - urban back garden in Southampton. Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. Image taken using a BST StarGuider 3.2mm, iPhone 14 Pro on no-brand smartphone adapter. Video 4K at 60fps taken using the stock camera app. All editing and processing on the phone using the stock camera app, VideoStack, WaveLetCam, Lightroom and SnapSeed. The image does a good job of what I could see visually over the period of observation. I’ve kept it orientated to the way I saw it in the Dob. For recording what I saw I prefer it that way! I’ve marked the “rift & reddish-brown stripe” in the NEB on the second image. Rift and reddish-brown stripe… I’ve also included an image from the 4th September 2023 (seeing also good) for comparison or, well, because I can! Processed slightly differently and I always struggle with colours and white balance. 4th September 2023

I have an iPhone but in Night Mode my iPhone 14 Pro takes 10 sec subs but only up to 30 seconds. The iPhone 12 did 3.3 sec subs. You can see in the camera data for these Milky Way shots. Although I don’t have an Android phone I think the clue is in “Astro mode”. On an iPhone Night Mode, and its associated 10 sec exposure, cannot be accessed by 3rd party apps.

An Astronomik UHC filter courtesy of @PeterC65. In superb as good as new condition. Thanks once more Peter.

I had/have one of these that was used to drive my EQ1. Personally I found that it transformed my EQ1 from something barely adequate to useful. Eg when setup properly you didn’t need to touch anything, so wobbles were less of an issue. And when observing with my daughter, changing eyepieces etc there was lots of time. When observing the moon Alice enjoyed going up and down the terminator, stopping at something she found interesting, asking me what it was, knowing that that whatever it was would still be in the middle of the FOV by the time I took a look. I also added a bigger rechargeable battery, larger knob on the Pot and a little cheap volt meter over the motor so you could dial back the same speed. It now drives my DIY EQ mount for my Skywatcher 200p Dob which I find superb. At the time it cost me £28 - best astronomy purchase I’ve made and one of the cheapest.

Better now. I can make out some “knots” in the NEB plus a couple of Blue Patches leading off into festoons. There’s also a strong thin band along the top of the S. Temperate Belt.