Observing Report - 09.06.07

[Akyra]

Since I stayed up to watch the magnificent launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis I thought I would wait around a little bit longer for Jupiter, having never seen it before.

So at 2am, as quietly as I possible could, I opened the back door and stood at the top of our garden looking to the South. A really bright star up quite high above the houses facing the front of ours. So I crept back into the house and took my scope out to where I had stood.

Now metal sliding on metal doesn't sound too bad in the day, but in the night its like banging two symbols together! Started off with my 25mm and picked Jupiter up no problem, it was the brightest dot in the Southern sky. Moved on to the 15mm and lost one of the moons from the FOV. Then cranked up the power with the barlow and 15mm.... She is beautiful! :jupiter:

I gazed at her for a few minutes then went back in the house to grab my laptop and mutilated webcam. Twice I managed to catch some light on the screen in K3CCD and soon gave up, and returned to observing with the 15mm. It was remarkably clear with no boiling at all and very little thickness to the atmosphere where the planet was, in fact it was still getting higher in the sky during my session.

Another one off my list, but I definitely will try and get another look before its too late. Gonna turn in now, will soon find out when I wake up if my tiptoe'ing has gone under my folks radar or not.

[maroon bells]

Nicely written.

I like my sleep too much to stay up that late, I'll have to wait a bit longer to get a look at it.

[Akyra]

The excitement wakes you up when you see it, it truly is amazing to see.

Looks like I got away with it as my folks havent said nothing about any noise

[The Warthog]

Enjoyed your report. Did you see any bands on the planet? Jupiter from here is pretty featureless, but our skies are carp at the moment. Humidity is supposed to be low tonight, though, so the seeing may improve.

Set the scope up while your parents are still awake, if you can be sure it won't rain.

[Akyra]

I could make our different shades of colour but no detail as such really. It was a bit of a spontaneous thing as the night (if you can call it that) had been mostly cloudy.

[The Warthog]

Try a yellow filter, if you have one. Or if you have an aperture mask, try that. It sometimes sharpens focus and improves contrast.

[tom.yates]

Great report enjoyed reading it very much