Colour on Jupiter

[26Left]

I was at my dark site yesterday while my son did his GCSE astronomy course-work (sketching constallations). When I'm there, I normally hunt down DSOs and yesterday, I had great views of the Veil Nebula and easily found the Triangulum Galaxy using my grab-and-go (Skywatcher 100ED on an AZ4).

Just before we left at 2am, I thought I'd have a quick look at Jupiter, which I have never done from that site before. I was amazed to see colour. I have observed Jupiter on and off for the last two years from my home and have only ever seen shades of grey. But, last night, I saw orange/beige colours on the equatial belts - in fact, on the whole disk. A wonderful sight, because seeing was quite good.

I put this colour experience down to one of two things:

1. Perhaps my eyes were better dark adapted. I had already been out for two hours. Difficult in my back garden, because of house lights, street lights etc.
   
2. There is much less light polution at my dark sight. NELM is usually 1 magnitude better than at home. Last night, it was 5.5 and it is often 6.0. Perhaps seeing an orange(ish) planet through a fog of orange LP tricks the brain into seeing everything as white and grey; a little like auto white balance on a camera.
   

Is it normal to see colours on planets? Have I been missing out on something?

By the way, my's son's sketches were very good. I'm a proud dad

[hemihaggis]

i think it is quite normal to see colour on jupiter , saturn and mars , possibly venus also , im sure others on the forum will have better knowlege of the outer planets .

[dweller25]

I struggle to see colour where I live as I live North of Manchester so observe through heavy light pollution.

At the moment I am in France with very dark skies and I can see colour. So I agree with you - a dark site helps.

[hemihaggis]

26 left , what kind of scope are you using ?? ....

[MjrTom]

I see a lot of colour on the gas giants of Jupiter and Saturn with my 80mm refractor.

There is definite colour banding on the planets, however if the seeing conditions are poor i.e too much moisture in the air or turbulence then all I am left with is a fuzzy blob.

[26Left]

26 left , what kind of scope are you using ?? ....

Normally, at home, a Meade 127 triplet. On this occasion, I was using a Skywatcher 100 ED.

[vegaandarctures]

Because I live in an extremely dark sky sight When the seeing is good I can always see colour on Jupiter.

[26Left]

Thanks for your info. I think it's down to LP. Living under it, you get used to LP, but I notice it when I drive back to my town from the dark site.

More trips away I think

[calibos]

AFAIK dark adaptation is the last thing you want when viewing the planets. The increased brightness of the planet with dark adapted eyes will blow out the colour and you are viewing with your 'black and white' rods instead of your colour cones. You should have been telling your son to give you a blast with the torch right between the eyes!

[Lightgazer]

Tonight I was able to get my first ever sighting of Jupiter, and I could clearly make out a bit of color as well as the two dark stripes across the planet. Incredibly exciting and rewarding view too, because I haven't really achieved much during the last week or so

My conditions are not perfect, and my back garden is totally clear of house or big security lights, but you could clearly see the glow of light pollution in the distance

[virtualpilot45]

I just revisited Jupiter for the first time in ages last week, and even at 150x mag it was just too bright! I struggled to see even the NEB. I'll be using my moon filter next time to cut down on the light, as I did with Venus in January.