Disoriented and needing help!

[DRT]

I want to see the GRS on Jupiter but am completely confused about where to look.

I know that the GRS sits on the southern equitorial band and that if we could see it with the naked eye it would transvers the planet from left to right as we look at it. I also know that the bands of Jupiter are parallel to the ecliptic so will go from bottom left to top right as it rises from the east, flat when in the south and from top left to bottom right as it falls towards the western horizon. The moons appear more or less on the same plane as the bands, depending on where they are in their orbit.

If any of that is rubbish please tell me!!

Where I get confused is when I look through my 200p dob, which has the standard focuser/eyepiece on the left hand side on a 45 degree angle between 10 and 11 o'clock as you look up the length of the scope.

When I look through this the line that is Jupiter and its moons runs on the expected plane (e.g. from bottom left to top right as it rises) but the moons are flipped around. For example, when Europa transversed the planet at around 6pm last night Stelarium showed it popping out from the top right of the disc and in my Dob it popped out bottom left.

I then read on this site and elsewhere that a Dob flips the image upside-down but not left-to-right. If it were only upside down the moons should be on the correct side of the planet but the moons and the bands should appear to be angled at 90 degrees across the eliptic. My only way of reconciling what I see in the scope is to conclude that the image is flipped both top to bottom and left-to-right.

I jope I have not confused everyone as much as I am!

So, back to the original question. In the image I have described would the GRS be in the band above or the band below the equator?

Help!!!!

[John]

In my dobs view last night the GRS was embedded in a large pale rimmed hollow in the S side of the South Equatorial Belt so towards the top of the planet in the dob view. It's always been at that latitude as far as I know although the SEB faded and virtually disappeared a couple of years back leaving the GRS "hanging" against the paler surface - that was a bit weird !

This applet shows when the GRS will be on the central meridian of the planet from our vantage point which is handy for planning viewing:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/3304091.html

Here is another that shows the position of the 4 moons:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/jupiter

[DRT]

Thanks, John.

So I should be looking for the GRS to be slightly above the band above the equator tracking from right to left?

[Moonshane]

see this thread. http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/205781-jupiter-9th-jan-14/ you'll see the GRS emerge on the right like the first pic and then start moving to the left as it makes its way across to the left.

[Charic]

If you enter Stellarium, Configuration, TOOLS, there is an option to 'Show Flip Buttons'. This allows you to setup Stellarium exactly as the telescope sees it. 

[itmo]

I use stellarium normally but the ocular view is flipped like the scope is.The problem with stellarium is that it's GRS is not (usually) synchronized with reality. I think you can somehow reset it manually but i dont know how long it stays synchronized since the GRS moves.