Am I doing Jupiter Wrong?

[cotterless45]

Hi Nick, vaguely on topic as it's still about Jupiter, but what's the setup on you OO?

Jupiter through my 8" 'scope is most definitely the other way up and angled in the opposite direction!

Do you just invert your sketches before they go into your notebook so that they are rotated accordingly?

I'm just curious as to what sketchers do.

I use an unlined book so if I were to sketch, it would go straight in. Without turning the book before sketching I'd end up will all my sketches inverted!

Cheers

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Hi bingvader,

I use the OO on an equatorial mount. It is possible to get the belts vertical or strangely angled depending on your position. I sketch at the ep , using a clip board and plain A4 paper. I try and note north and south. If it's a delicate sketch done with a 6B pencil, then I put it in the copier before sticking it my notebook.

Just by chance I was looking at Jupiter tonight and folded a piece of black card over the end of the ota to cover about half the aperture. This took a lot of glare off and seemed much better than a filter. It's an easy quick fix.

There was much detail to the edge of both belts ,

Nick.

[bingevader]

Thanks Nick, just curious! 

I tried a couple of sketches myself, definitely not for public consumption!  The bands were at a very acute angle through the dob, and the GRS ( and South Pole) at the top of the page. I didn't fancy sketching upside down.

Interesting difference between the 2 EPs. I used a 9.7mm plossl and the 6mm SPL. The 9.7 gave better contrast and more detail towards the poles. The 6mm showed more colour and subtle definition.

How was your moon tonight? 

Cheers

[Mowbs]

Definitely go through the collimation steps with regards to confirming whether it does need adjusting, I took quite a while to acclimatise myself with the daunting new skill before I turned a screw. You may just jump in duck to water style but I did not, It took me a lot of youtube vids and re-reads of astrobaby's collimation guide to understand fully what each step looked like bad and good and the order in which it should be tackled etc.

Ronin's opinion is valid, although a little subjective imo, If he doesn't mind me saying (here's hoping ), The seeing conditions factor enormously and what works for one person or 40 may not work with you. Also we know from our friends in the police department, what groups of people say they see and what they actually see are sometimes very different things, sometimes people will see things simply because someone said they should

Anyway, regardless of that, I would definitely start with collimation as that is a tangible place to start and is not based on opinion.

I ordered a laser collimator online and it arrived today so I watched a couple of youtube videos and set about it. The laser on the secondary mirror was out by maybe half an inch so I've adjusted it all up and I'm happy both that I needed some adjustment and that it was surprisingly easy to do (once I found a 2mm Allen key)

Unfortunately it's a cloudy night tonight but I'm really looking forward to getting back out to see what difference that has made.

I noticed last night when I focused too far out on a star the center point moved to the left and when I focused too far in it moved to the right. Is that a symptom of being out of collimation?

[johnd]

A 200 Dob, when accurately collimated should give you acceptable results,image.jpg

Nick.

Hi I've been looking at Jupier also and apart from my finder Rigel finder not aligned when I can find it and get my x2 Barlow on it looks great. I really like the moons as they swap positions. Lastnight at about 21:00 the Planet had Io and Ganymede either side and looked very pretty. I still can't get my eyes to see the Red dot but losts of bands. Could you see the shadow as a moon crosses Jupiter?

p.s. I liked the sketch but was confused by the date?

[Charic]

I ordered a laser collimator online and it arrived today so I watched a couple of youtube videos and set about it. The laser on the secondary mirror was out by maybe half an inch so I've adjusted it all up and I'm happy both that I needed some adjustment and that it was surprisingly easy to do (once I found a 2mm Allen key)

Unfortunately it's a cloudy night tonight but I'm really looking forward to getting back out to see what difference that has made.

I noticed last night when I focused too far out on a star the center point moved to the left and when I focused too far in it moved to the right. Is that a symptom of being out of collimation?

On the secondary?  On the primary I would expect, unless your secondary was well out of alignment with the focuser tube!. I only use my laser for final checks, or out in the field as I cannot look into the finder whilst adjusting the primary.  If you collimate in good light with just a cap, just prior to adjusting the primary mirror alignment, pop in your Barlow piece, then the laser. The idea here is that the laser beam is diffused by the Barlow and  illuminates the Primary mirror, which in-turn sends a reflection /shadow of the centre spot back to the laser face. This reflection/shadow  from the primary spot is then adjusted  to centre around the hole in the faceplate/bullseye of the 45° face of the later reticule. It's slightly easier to align, than trying to get the laser spot back into it's own hole. Also remember the laser needs to be accurately collimated too. Mine is collimated to about 18 feet and scribes a dot, rather than a circle on the wall. There is also movement in the focuser tube. You`ll see this when tightening the locking screws, or by rotating the laser in the focuser( that's a good way to see if the laser is off - if it stays within the centre spot, I would say no more adjustment is necessary to the laser). I`d be happy to help if you really got stuck. Aberdeenshire is vast but if were only 30 mins or so apart, that wouldn't be a problem" PM if you need.