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Europa shadow/transit on Jupiter now, GRS later

Moonshane

By Moonshane
in Observing - Planetary

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DRT

DRT

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Posted

I've spent the last hour watching Europa pop out from in front of the planet :cool:

Jupiter is very bright tonight so I put the main cap back on the 200p and removed the small 2" cap to reduce the light capture. Wow! As soon as I did that the colours and contrast improved enormously. I have no idea how or why that works but it is definitely something I will do again.

Time for tea and then back out to try my new O-III filter on Orion :smiley:

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John

John

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Posted

Jupiter is very bright tonight so I put the main cap back on the 200p and removed the small 2" cap to reduce the light capture. Wow! As soon as I did that the colours and contrast improved enormously. I have no idea how or why that works but it is definitely something I will do again.

It seems good to reduce the light but bear in mind that you are only getting the resolution and light grasp of a scope with an aperture of around 2" or so, the size of the hole in the cap. If you observe Jupiter for a little time your eye soon adjusts to the brightness and you can start to perceive the full detail that your 8" scope can deliver.

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AlexB67

AlexB67

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Posted

Jut set up everything up after coming home, skies looked pretty promising, in fact very much so, lots of stars visible naked eye ( by my suburban garden standards ), then big shower, managed to pack up everything, now wait for later. Friday was similar, but I did not even get as far as the setting up stage, the clouds beat me to it at around 7 PM.

I live in a bit of hope for this evening :smiley:  it has been a good while here since I've been able to use a scope with the weather lately.

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John

John

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Typically, just as the GRS gets into a good position, the seeing is going off quite badly :(

James

Still OK here but I seem to get what you get in due course James so I'll make the most of it.

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John

John

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Sorry for anyone loosing the seeing tonight but it's holding well here  :smiley:

As well as the GRS coming on to the disk there is a strongly defined grey / blue (to my eyes) plume coming off the NEB and into the EQ zone and this is ahead of the GRS and nearing the central meridian now. There are some less well defined plumes too but this one stands out for me.

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John

John

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I agree John and see the same thing. the other grey festoon seems better defined now too. is there one of 'your' white barges behind the larger of the grey festoons? maybe it's just a contrast effect but looks real.

Either a white barge or a paler spot / patch just where the festoon curves around into the EQ zone. Definitely a lighter area just tucked into the the "crook" of that festoon. A couple more festoons crept onto the disk so we had the majestic sight of the GRS more of less on the central meridian and 3 festoons lining the N side of the NEB below (in a newt) the GRS. Marvelous :grin:

Good time to compare the colours of Io and Europa with one above the other as they are right now. To me Europa has a slightly more golden yellow tint than Io but I'd be interested in what others see.

Cracking stuff here - just split SIrius as well  :grin:

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Mark at Beaufort

Mark at Beaufort

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Incredible detail on Jupiter tonight using the Mak 180mm and binoviewers. Although I have viewed Jupiter this season I have missed the GRS every time. I bought this Mak last May and tonight I was hoping to view the Europa transit and the GRS.

Great detail surrounding the GRS and the structure in both the North and South Equatorial Belts was amazing. I was pleased to view structures in the Temperate areas as well.

Had a go at Sirius but no go on the Pup.

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andrew63

andrew63

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Thanks for the heads up.  A chance to see Jupiter and the GRS for the first time for a while. I only had a 8mm plossl and the atmosphere was very unstable, but even with only x89 at fleeting moments some fine details could be glimpsed.  I was surprised how prominent the GRS was compared to last winter -  a much crisper feature.

andrew

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Lorne

Lorne

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Got set up in my garden before the GRS transit, decent seeing at 250X with 2 bands above the NEB and 1 below the SEB, showing quite well, by the time the GRS appeared the view was getting worse, mushy even, with the extra bands harder to see. I had to lower the mag considerably to 125X to make out the spot at all, but by then the clouds were rolling in. 

As for the earlier Europa transit, that was totally eclipsed by the house next door :(

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AlexB67

AlexB67

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Good views of the GRS here, it coincided  with a time Jupiter was about as high as it goes atm I think.  Started with the lower mag  and worked up the mag as the scope was well cooled. Most of the time my BST 8mm at 150x gave splendid views. Ever since I started tracking a bit more and keeping the planet more centred instead of letting it drift large amounts I get more out of my cheaper eyepieces  like the BSTs, something I discovered with the pentax that retains detail so well across the FOV.  Close to center and little away from it though that 8mm BST gives cracking views.

For the fun of it I had a few minutes of using 300x mag, while it was mostly not good and call me crazy I do that kind of thing, there was one moment in that few minutes where the GRS was amazing, the whole planet popped out in full detail, very clear for a number of seconds, It was if as if those  atmospheric molecules aligned themselves into an ordered crystal lattice and mother nature said, there you go Alex, one moment of what it would be like if you could observe without an atmosphere.

Cracking stuff :D

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JamesF

JamesF

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I was finding much the same.  The seeing earlier in the evening was excellent, but deteriorated as the evening went on.  There were times however when everything just seemed to jump out of the fuzziness and for a fleeting moment it was just beautiful.

James

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Reeny

Reeny

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For the red spot, I was mostly using the 16mm MaxVision again, Barlowed down to 160x magnification.

I still can't get the best out of the 11mm Explore Scientific on Jupiter with the Barlow (230x may be too much)

Less is more.

Thankfully the MaxVision delivered.

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AlexB67

AlexB67

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I found 150x to be good a lot of the time, even the cheap SW UWA I own delivered quite well at 200x for periods, but it is not one of the more expensive eyepieces I own, that last collimation tweak can help too. I find planetary detail is quite sensitive so that, in my relatively fast scope that is. That pentax XW 7mm  I want and will get will be a very good sweet spot a lot of the time, though I imagine a nice astro hutech ortho will really do the job well too in my scope.

I was not using glasses for most of this tonight and was happy doing so. I am tempted at some stage by one of the astro hutechs to add but would prefer to try one first.

Personally I would not feel I own too many focal lengths if I had  a 5,6,7,8mm in my case to play with on Jupiter/Saturn in my 10 inch Dob  :D

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