Frustrated with Jupiter

[jabberwocky]

I had a good session tonight, Jupiter and it's moons,m45, andromeda galaxy, the odd satellite or 3, but I feel slightly frustrated when viewing Jupiter, it's great being able to see it's moons so easily but Jupiter itself is so bright all I can see is the 2 bands but only just.

What filter can I use to help this, would a low density moon filter help or would that be too dark? Would a light pollution filter help or a coloured filter?

Is there anything else that would make the detail visible?

[DOBBY]

Low density moon filter wont do it...it's still too bright...I just tried...

[ScubaMike]

Not managed to try them yet, but I now have a number of colour filters.

Shamelessly lifted from elsewhere on the web:-

#80A Blue (30% transmission)

Enhances contrast of rills and festoons in Jupiter's cloud belts, as well as details of the Red Spot

#38A Dark Blue (17% transmission)

Increases contrast between belt structures and enhances detail of the Red Spot.

#25A Red (14% transmission)

results in a very sharply defined contrast between, for example, blue-tinted cloud formations on Jupiter and the lighter-toned features on the disc.

#21 Orange (46% transmission)

Use on Jupiter or Saturn to enhance detail in the belts and polar regions.

Do a web search and you will find many colour filters and their effects. Note: they will obviously reduce the light so the ones you can succesfully use will be determined by your scope aperture.

[Vali x]

i bought myself a Baader Moon&glow filter and it cuts down from LP and it gives me a darker background...give it a try.

[John]

I find spending time observing Jupiter gradually enables you to see finer and more subtle details. I find my eye adjusts to the brightness of the disk and then, after 30-60 minutes of observing I can start to tease out more detail as the variances in seeing allow.

[Shibby]

I read that the #56 or #58 light green filter brings out the great red Spot and cloud bands on Jupiter.

[sulaco]

I use a variable polarizing filter and it works quite well.

[umadog]

I can't speak about coloured filters but I don't use neutral density filters on Jupiter. It's just more glass. This can only increase scattering and reduce contrast. In fact, I've heard that many hard-core lunar observers don't use a filter for the same reasons. They just light adapt a little and get on with it. I've tried it, and it works pretty well. You can't see anything else, but the moon looks great. A Jupiter strategy I've heard is to glance at a bright light every few minutes whilst observing.

Two other things spring to mind. Firstly, make sure the scope is well collimated. Secondly, don't use too much power. Jupiter is one of the objects with a very definite sweet spot. It will look best at a particular power. Go too high and you'll see a lot of turbulence in your image. Another strategy is to use very high powers and wait for good moments in seeing. The problem with that is that the planet looks rubbish most of the time. Finally, make sure the scope is cooled down.

[John]

A lot of good tips in the above post from Umadog - and they do work too

[russ]

Getting the power right is crucial. Too little and Jupiter will be too bright. But Jupiter hates too much power, just becomes a boiling mess. Getting the balance right is the trick. And i just couldn't manage it this morning. The seeing was awful again. The image fell apart at 150x, looked better at 120x but way too bright. Even after 30mins of waiting for steadier seeing moments i still couldn't tease out much detail.

I find Jupiter the most frustrating planet to observe from my location. I have massive dew problems and horrendous seeing, even when others just down the road (15miles away) are reporting dry and steady conditions.

[Adz]

I have recently put a similar thread up about viewing jupiter. It seems prolonged viewing is the best strategy for teasing out detail. I haven't had a chance to try yet

[Ags]

I find I see much more if I sketch.

[russ]

I tried Jupiter again this morning but the seeing at the moment is truly dreadful. Anything over 120x and it just breaks down. Moments of slightly better seeing were very fleeting and not very frequent. Really hope i'm not in for another Jupiter season like last year where i only managed 4 good views.

[crazyjedi]

Not had a peek at Jupiter recently but last year I found that the longer the session and the more my eyes adjusted the better it got. Sometimes I had to stare at it for quite a while for the seeing to settle but in the odd moments of clarity it was fab

[Woking]

I had similar problems last night with my first ever view of Jupiter. Where we observe the glow of London is in the east, which was compounded with light bands of cloud, add to this a bright moon which took out most of the south & south east, plus the not great seeing.

Early on Jupiter was boiling and the bands were coming in and out with the seeing.

Later on, around 1, it was higher up and it steadied enough at x112. Still slightly boiling but the bands were becoming fairly steady and the moons were good viewing (a little red looking Europa peeking out from the corner of the King).

Anything higher mag and it would just boil again - good advice above about backing off the high power a bit.

Good first view but there's the promise of better viewing as Jupiter moves away from the east and get's higher in the coming weeks.

Neptune defeated us last night, we must have spent well over an hour hunting and constantly referring to printed stellarium maps. The moon was cursed plenty and even GOTO was mentioned on occassion lol