Poor viewing this morning

[tommc]

Got up around 05:30, as it was pretty clear, and not too cold. Annoyingly the nearby street lights were already on.

Anyway, with Jupiter, Mars and Saturn easily visible to the naked eye, I thought we'd be in for a treat, however came away really disappointed.

Even Jupiter looked pretty indistinct, and Mars and Saturn showed no detail, looking much smaller and fainter than hoped for.

Were we being too impatient, and perhaps should have spent more than 15 minutes, or was it just a poor sky?

Previous evenings have provided us fantastically detailed views of Jupiter.

SkyWatcher 200P with 11mm EP was all we tried.

[CodnorPaul]

Last night the seeing wasn't great but I did manage wonderful views of Jupiter about 2am - by 5.30am though it would have been much lower in the sky so it wouldn't not have been as clear.  I could only use about 100x mag though last night but clearly saw detail in the belts and the GRS.

As for Mars and Saturn it is a little early for them yet - yes they are visible but again very low down, give them a little more time and they will come up higher and earlier.

Despite the seeing not being great I still managed a good night of Messier hunting and bagged a few new galaxies so not all bad

[andyman]

Sorry you didnt get the views you were hoping for especially getting up that early....but there will be other nights or mornings where the seeing conditions will be much better....good luck

[Mr Q]

   Did you let the scope cool down enough? Not doing so will hinder details in planetary observing and along with a "not so clear" sky, the observing results you mention are likely.