Good earlier, hazier now though

[John]

The conditions were quite good earlier this evening and I managed to get some great views of the lunar landscape with my 12" F/5.3 dob. A first for me was being able to spot sections of the rille that runs down the Alpine Valley - it's a feature that has eluded me until now. The Hyginus Rille was also looking really sharply defined with the crater chains along sections of it's length really well defined.

Jupiter was looking nice and it was enjoyable to watch as Io began it's transit followed by it's shadow which tracked the Great Red Spot across the disk, sitting for a while in the pale rim between the GRS and the South Equatorial Belt as it slowly overtook the GRS.

Io has now exited the disk and it's shadow has passed the GRS, the latter being more or less on the central meridian as I type.

Most of the above was observed using the Baader Classic 6mm Ortho with the occasional foray to higher powers using the 10mm Classic Ortho and the 2.25x Q-Turret barlow for 4.4mm.

Hazy cloud bands have swept over in the past 45 mins taking the edge off the contrast of Jovian and Lunar features a little although it's still worth observing, albeit with slightly lower magnification than earlier.

DSO's won't be much good here tonight though, unless the hazy stuff blows away !

I think this is the 3rd night in a row with stars showing which is such a nice change from the seemingly long run of poor conditions over the past couple of months

[estwing]

i got the zeiss out last night..for about ten mins,but got a chance to try out my latest ep...the 6mm zeiss ortho! and bagged the lunar x!,sometimes i forget how good the 63mm is,crisp,clear and sharp,a joy...until same said haze moved in John,Grrrrrrrrrrr

[John]

i got the zeiss out last night..for about ten mins,but got a chance to try out my latest ep...the 6mm zeiss ortho! and bagged the lunar x!,sometimes i forget how good the 63mm is,crisp,clear and sharp,a joy...until same said haze moved in John,Grrrrrrrrrrr

That Zeiss has one of the best objectives ever made I believe. It's probably a bit less affected by variable seeing conditions than a larger dob too - sometimes less is more

[Mark at Beaufort]

John we have the same conditions in Hereford. I set up the 4" frac with my new binoviewers to view the Lunar surface and was able to pick up 3 more objects from the Lunar 100 list. Moved over to Jupiter and the hazy conditions started to get bad and in fact was not able to view the GRS.

[John]

John we have the same conditions in Hereford. I set up the 4" frac with my new binoviewers to view the Lunar surface and was able to pick up 3 more objects from the Lunar 100 list. Moved over to Jupiter and the hazy conditions started to get bad and in fact was not able to view the GRS.

Yes Mark, the haze tended to make the features on Jupiter really lack contrast - The GRS was not that clear even with 12" of aperture. Still, better than solid cloud I guess

[Stu]

Had a quick go with my little 66mm and Nagler zoom. The shadow was very clear, and could see a number of bands on the surface and could just about detect where I knew where GRS was supposed to be but it was far from obvious.

Tried my Binoviewer for the first time in this scope with 7mm BGO's but it needed a x2.6 corrector to reach focus which pushed the mag too high for Jupiter. The moon looked pretty good though, even if it was still to high for the scope. This combination should work fine with my 106mm so will try that soon.

Stu

[Special K]

Hi John, I must have picked up shortly after you left off at about 8:45. Spotted that shadow straight off so got excited! Best view for me was 130x due to that haze. I was quick about it tonight when I saw the slight haze driving home earlier, and just recall that a little haze can be a beneficial filter for planetary viewing. However, it was just a little too much wasn't it?! Ah well, I got what I wanted. There were some moments of good contrast, but found that the boiler exhaust from my house was causing more atmospherics!!!

[JamesF]

Same story here. Clear for a short while, but the haze moved in and whilst I left the scope out in case it cleared conditions actually appear to be getting worse so I've called it a night.

Not a dead loss though as I think I've identified a problem I was having with imaging the Moon.

James

[estwing]

That Zeiss has one of the best objectives ever made I believe. It's probably a bit less affected by variable seeing conditions than a larger dob too - sometimes less is more

....less is more...don't say that i've just bought a 18" mirror...

[John]

....less is more...don't say that i've just bought a 18" mirror...

....... and other times, more is more

[Matt Scunthorpe]

I must of just missed the transit while i was setting up. Had good views of the moon and jupiter though. Didnt bother me anything else tonight.

[Mike73]

I've had my eyes and scope fixed on the moon all night, the seeing conditions were better than last night.

Now pondering whether to head out to a dark site to get my DSO fix in a couple hours, by the time the moon disappears I'II only get 2 1/2 hrs of real dark but the Leo galaxies are calling!