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Moon transit on Jupiter's disc now

Moonshane

By Moonshane
in Observing - Planetary

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Uplooker

Uplooker

Posted
Posted

Hi Shane,

Well what the heck are you doing in doors posting about it, get back out observing :evil:  Only kidding. Way too tired tonight and the gap in the clouds is only likely to last a half hours, not the mention the fact that Jup has yet to clear next doors oak tree.

Ian

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JessicaFaye

JessicaFaye

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Posted

Hello!

I was out last night using my startravel 80 (EQ1), and I was having a good look at Jupiter with my 10mm eyepiece and I saw two moons very close together on the left bottom quater of jupiter ('left' through the eyepiece) from what I could work out I would have said the two close moons were Io and Ganymede and quite a bit further out on the opposite side was Europa. This was around 10pm. By 12am one of the moons had gone, would this be the transit you are talking about? Im new to all this and if you don't ask you'll never know! :)

Thank you

Jessica

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step_hen

step_hen

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Posted

Hello!

I was out last night using my startravel 80 (EQ1), and I was having a good look at Jupiter with my 10mm eyepiece and I saw two moons very close together on the left bottom quater of jupiter ('left' through the eyepiece) from what I could work out I would have said the two close moons were Io and Ganymede and quite a bit further out on the opposite side was Europa. This was around 10pm. By 12am one of the moons had gone, would this be the transit you are talking about? Im new to all this and if you don't ask you'll never know! :)

Thank you

Jessica

You could check your view against a planetarium programme like Stellarium (Its FREE!)- if you enter your location  and 'rewind' to the same time as you were viewing then zoom in on jupiter, it should give you the positions and names of the moons. I was out around 22.00 last night and saw a moon about half way across the disk of jupiter, just above one of the equatorial belts

Stephen

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chiltonstar

chiltonstar

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Posted

Right I see... My problem is my kit is not quite good enough to spot these details! I've only just got started with this hobby but I can see me stretching many a pay packet to fund it... :D

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What scope have you got? Practically any size scope will spot a shadow transit on Jupiter.

Chris

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JessicaFaye

JessicaFaye

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I have a skywatcher startravel 80 (EQ1) it could be possibly more that I don't know what I'm looking for so may have missed it... I've also been posting as I've had trouble with my Barlow (x2) so may have seen more if I could get that working! It seems I was using the Barlow correctly but just couldn't get the point of focus! I just need some more clear skies so I can get out and mess around with it all a little more! Damn clouds!

Jessica

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Stu

Stu

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I have a skywatcher startravel 80 (EQ1) it could be possibly more that I don't know what I'm looking for so may have missed it... I've also been posting as I've had trouble with my Barlow (x2) so may have seen more if I could get that working! It seems I was using the Barlow correctly but just couldn't get the point of focus! I just need some more clear skies so I can get out and mess around with it all a little more! Damn clouds!

Jessica

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Keep trying Jessica. I've seen shadow transits with a 66mm apo refractor at around x100 or so. It will have less colour fringing than your ST80 but a little less aperture. The ST80 will always struggle with higher mag but the shadow transits are very well defined, a clear black dot, so I reckon you should see one.

Is your Barlow any good? If it is not very good quality then it might be making things difficult. Maybe better to pick up a better quality eyepiece which gives you higher magnification?

Stu

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AndyWB

AndyWB

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I think I saw that too - but I think it was the moon, not a shadow. The JupiterMoons app shows the shadow transit ending at 2121. I saw what I thought was a shadow at first, but at 2145, in the middle lower quarter just like you said. The app showed Ganymede itself transiting.

I didn't quite believe you could see a moon in front of the glare of Jupiter, particularly given that the view was a bit mushy.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/202160-ganymede-visible-during-transit/

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JessicaFaye

JessicaFaye

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Keep trying Jessica. I've seen shadow transits with a 66mm apo refractor at around x100 or so. It will have less colour fringing than your ST80 but a little less aperture. The ST80 will always struggle with higher mag but the shadow transits are very well defined, a clear black dot, so I reckon you should see one.

Is your Barlow any good? If it is not very good quality then it might be making things difficult. Maybe better to pick up a better quality eyepiece which gives you higher magnification?

Stu

I'm really not sure about the Barlow from what I've explained I was using it correctly, I know it has a sensitive point of focus but really I need to give it another whirl to see if there's a problem with the EP! I've only had one chance with clear skies to get out and use it as I only got it Tuesday last week... Just to clarify the ST80 will have more aperture so I'll get a better image because there's more light than the 66mm apo refractor? I'm still picking up the lingo and learning how it all works! :D

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Stu

Stu

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Good stuff, give it plenty of chances as there are often nights of poor seeing even when it looks clear. When this happens, it's hard to see detail in any scope.

The ST80 has a larger aperture and collects more light so objects will be a little brighter. In theory it will also show more detail but in practise, the optics on the 66mm apo will take higher magnification, and show much less colour fringing (called Chromatic Abberation, or CA for short) so the detail is easier to pick out in the apo.

The ST80 is great for widefield views of open clusters at low and mid magnification and is nice and portable so you can get it under some dark skies.

Eyepieces do make a big difference too so depending on what you have, these may be something to consider upgrading in future once you've got a bit more experience.

Have fun.

Stu

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JessicaFaye

JessicaFaye

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This is the thing, when I was out it was really not good seeing stars were very twinkly, the moon was extremely bright and it was in and out of clouds... I noticed a lot of CA! I have the feeling I will be very poor for a while to come, I'm hooked on this hobby and would love to start doing some astro photography, so I think better equipment will come swiftly!! :) thanks for the explanation and advice, this forum is absolutely brilliant!!

Jessica

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chiltonstar

chiltonstar

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I'm really not sure about the Barlow from what I've explained I was using it correctly, I know it has a sensitive point of focus but really I need to give it another whirl to see if there's a problem with the EP! I've only had one chance with clear skies to get out and use it as I only got it Tuesday last week... Just to clarify the ST80 will have more aperture so I'll get a better image because there's more light than the 66mm apo refractor? I'm still picking up the lingo and learning how it all works! :D

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Worth speaking to the dealer re Barlow because you may need an extension tube??

Chris

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