GRS at last and a lesson learnt

[bomberbaz]

Ok so got a couple of hours good clear skies and checked grs on iphone app which told me it should b there. So got jupiter in my 24mm and then slapped in the 7mm and cranked it straight up to 210x.

Cant see it inthought, carried on viewing, tried with a moon filter but no joy and everything too blurred and shaky in wind.

Ok I decided to drop it down, slapped in a 10mm x150 and bingo, there it was, clear as could be. Well that was it, lets see how low u can go. 14mm, 12mm down to the 17.3 and I could still make it out at 88x.

Lovely pinkish oval and another thing, it looked very defined wiyh the blue filter and although the natural colour, still it looked beautiful.

Great little session and as the title says, lesson learnt. Power isnt everything.

Steve

[John]

Congratulations Steve 

In all honesty it took me quite a few years to clearly see the Great Red Spot. My scopes back then were relatively small aperture and I did not know what I was looking for and probably did not spend enough time trying !

It's like so many targets in that once you have seen it, it's much easier to find the next time around - provided it's on the right side of the planet in this case ! 

[HumptyMoo]

Last night I did some Jupiter observing after I failed yet again to locate ngc2903(?? the supposed bright one, a telrad and a half from leo's nose). It was actually jumping in and out of clarity at 96x, I guess the upper atmosphere is not so stable right now despite the odd hour here and there of clarity.

[jonathan]

Tonight I started with 25mm (through my 102mm refractor) and found it too bright to make out much detail so went to 10mm, good crisp view but still rather small, went to 5mm and could see considerably more detail, including what I take was the GRS just making its way across the bottom left of the planet (as I saw it).

After a while I switched back to the 10mm but it seemed slightly less clear, tried the 5mm again but definitely seem to have lost something, just couldn't quite focus it.  Maybe I'd got some dew on a lens somewhere or perhaps the conditions had just changed slightly, who knows.  It didn't seem to be a bad night for dew although there was some on the greenhouse.

[John]

I had a few short views of Jupiter myself tonight and found the seeing conditions highly variable. It sometimes looked as if someone has drawn a lace curtain across the planet for a few minutes, then clear for 30 seconds, then hazy again 

[AlexB67]

Very much the same here, occasional clarity and sometimes it was as if I was looking through a curtain of water for bits of it. Did see a bit of the GRS but cloud interfered on and off quite a bit, so I did a bit of hopping, tried to split some doubles in Orion but seeing wasn't great for that. Still nice to see part of the Orion neb at medium to high mag, nebulosity still came through very nicely in the background both at 100x - 200x.

Sky a bit higher up was better though. The 37 cluster was the winning target for me of the evening, nicely defined at 200x, then more cloud so it was packing up time. No aurora though but I am looking into the city on that side, and not enough clearance near horizon, so I never held out much hope for that. Still, a little brief session was nice to have seeing observing time has been so scarce with the weather and all lately 

[John]

No aurora here either Alex, if it's of any consolation.

Observing is a somewhat frustrating business at the moment I feel - the conditions are so variable that it's difficult to settle into anything 

[AlexB67]

I know the feeling, I can't recall the last time I even had anything half decent for deep sky viewing, even those short distance trips to the east of me with somewhat  better skies seem so long ago now,  even at home it has been scarce too. Nevertheless, some good Jupiter sessions and moon in the last few weeks. Seems my deep sky object count has almost stagnated for a while now. 

Bring on a better spring I hope and some darker sky trips before summer. 

[bomberbaz]

Last night I did some Jupiter observing after I failed yet again to locate ngc2903(?? the supposed bright one, a telrad and a half from leo's nose). It was actually jumping in and out of clarity at 96x, I guess the upper atmosphere is not so stable right now despite the odd hour here and there of clarity.

Think your spot on there with the upper atmosphere. I watched a programme on storms last night and with the jet stream licking britain all the time it is bound to disturb the viewing conditions.

Highest I was happy with last night was a 10 @x150 but my 12@x125 got most useage as that seemed to be producing the crisppest images plus detail.

[earth titan]

Bizarre isn't it! I had one of the most stable views I've had. Managed to get good detail at 290x with the C9.25.

[Paul73]

Pants seeing west of Reading too. Could get the GRS (just) but not a chance of catching the transiting shadow.

Happily, low power cluster gawping saved the day. M35 & friends were a delight.

Paul

[DazC]

I started watching Jupiter last night at around 19.30.

Straight away I could see the GRS and an added bonus was the shadow transit of Europa.

D.C

[earth titan]

I started watching Jupiter last night at around 19.30.

Straight away I could see the GRS and an added bonus was the shadow transit of Europa.

D.C

Missed the transit - stuck on the A1 unfortunately. Knew it was happening and was keen not to miss it - so 'thanks' to the bloke who parked his car in the back of someone else's and caused me to be late home!

[Solar_observer]

It was my first light with my 200p dob last night and the skies were almost crystal. Knowing there was going to be a shadow transit I put the scope in the brick shed to cool all day.

Shadow of Europa started around just past 6pm started with the 18mm bst and the celestron Ultima 2x barlow (133),sharp as pins.....Shadow on the limb was so obvious and the grs was obvious too. So onto the 12mm bst with the same Barlow and WOW....So much detail the shadow was pitch black,grs clear as day. I could easily make out the 2 main eb and also the fainter others. I followed the transit till at the point where I could see the grs,the shadow very nearly over the grs PLUS Europa coming off the opposite limb of Jupiter. It was an Obvious creamy white dot,too see all 3 going on in front of my favorite planet, is something I will never forget.

I went on too see the double cluster in Pleiades, the sn in m81,m1,Leo trio (never seen this before)

It was my best night ever,I spent 3 hours outside,made a lot easier cos I'm on holiday but still at home and also my gf was at work,so I didn't have the moaning. :-) this 200p is the Best.

Clear skies to you all :-)

[Solar_observer]

DAMN......STUPID PREDICTIVE...ment double cluster in perseus and the Pleiades. Sorry for the errors.

Clear skies to you all :-)

[Solar_observer]

Sn in m82....NOT m81.......GAWD.

Clear skies to you all :-)

[bomberbaz]

still managed the SN in M81 last night, needed averted vision though but again only around x100

[Solar_observer]

I'm set up and ready too observe it again.....2nights in a row......OMG what's going on :-)

Clear skies to you all :-)

[Solar_observer]

Just brought my gear in,I'm disappointed cos it didn't take long to dew up. Very high thin cloud rolled in from nowhere too only managed a few clusters in auriga and the owl cluster (beautiful cluster in all its simplicity) it's clearing up slightly,hoping to give mars a first look,through this AMAZING scope :-)

Clear skies to you all :-)