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Lovely views of GRS transit

Stu

By Stu
in Observing - Planetary

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Stu

Stu

Posted
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I'm just warming up after a somewhat chilly, but very nice long observing session with the big Vixen. Probably my best with it to date.

I'm 'home alone' tonight, before heading back up north (well, midlands really), for a few days, and remarkably despite the dire forecast a few days ago it has been beautifully clear all night. Mrs Maksutov would probably quite rightly have me sectioned if she knew what time I was up to, but it was well worth it.

I spent plenty of time in and around Orion, lovely views of the Trapezium with E & F stars showing.

Better focus on Jupiter though as we are in the Planetary section ;-)

I've pretty much watched the entire GRS transit over the course of the evening/morning! It's actually amazing how fast it moves. I found it quite hard to pick up early on, but once Jupiter was higher and the GRS nearer the meridian it became much clearer.

The seeing has been quite variable, some moments of lovely clarity but plenty of periods where it was quite soft. As usual my problems stem from observing over houses with a few boiler flues causing problems.

I was using the Vixen 150ED on the Ercole mount. This is just about sufficient but is a little wobbly at high power when focusing. I'm going to explore a powered Focuser for better fine focusing and also will look at stiffening up the tripod somehow.

The Leica zoom/Baader VIP barlow combination was working very well, giving plenty of detail although I do find the image degrades towards the edge of the fov. Ideally I should be using the Atlux mount for planetary to keep the target centralized.

Anyway, the GRS was perhaps not as prominent as I've seen it in the past, but still during moments of good seeing there was some lovely detail visible. Plenty of swirls and a couple of barges in the NEB, and nice detail where the GRS was nestling into the SEB.

My new Astrogloves worked very well indeed, hands kept warm but still able to handle kit safely.

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My other present also worked wonders, a £4 hairdryer from Argos. Cleared the objective of heavy dew in about 15 seconds on the low setting. Normally I would have to abandon a session once things have got dewed up, but no more!!

Hope you managed some good views if the skies were kind to you.

Stu

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Bart

Bart

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Glad you got good views. Seeing was awful here. Got some detail but not much. Had much better luck on the fuzzies. Virgo was confusing and mesmerising in equal measures. Lovely time. Also spent time in Leo and Ursa Major hunting galaxies. Should have got the big guy out if I'd known it was going to be that clear.

I like the gloves. I use anglers gloves, same thing essentially. They do work a treat.

The hairdryer is a very underrated bit of astro kit!

It's good to get out there.

Barry

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alan potts

alan potts

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I had a trip outside at 10.00 with the bino's but it had already dropped to minus 6 and that is cold as there is snow on the ground and the humidity was high. Sadly I have a walnut tree in the way where Jupiter rises and it takes a couple of hours to clear that.

Alan.

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Anthonyw85

Anthonyw85

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I saw Jupiter for the first time last.I was amazed at seeing 2 of the red bands and 4 moons lovely and aligned but no GRS for me. I was out early evening until 11 and stellarium suggests the GRS was the other side , nice report and may have to redesign my gloves ;)

Clear Skies.

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Stu

Stu

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I saw Jupiter for the first time last.I was amazed at seeing 2 of the red bands and 4 moons lovely and aligned but no GRS for me. I was out early evening until 11 and stellarium suggests the GRS was the other side , nice report and may have to redesign my gloves ;)

Clear Skies.

Nice one Anthony . Good, isn't it? [emoji3]

Yes, the GRS transited at 2.48am, like a fool I stayed up to watch it!! Well worth making the effort though, but blooming cold!! I needed my thermal long johns on!

Good luck with glove modifications [emoji6]

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Stu

Stu

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I put my ED120 out last night with the same thing in mind but the cloud cover stayed put so I never got to use it !

I'm glad you got some good viewing in Stu :smiley:

That's a shame John. I must admit when I was putting the scope out in quite thick cloud I had my doubts, but clear outside was right and the skies were lovely all night.

Would love to get the vixen under some steadier skies though. It was good, but.......

Hopefully SGLX will be clear

Stu

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Scooot

Scooot

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Nice report Stu. I got up at 3 and Jupiter was the first thing I looked at being so high. I'd put the scope in the garage to cool before I went to bed but by the time I'd had a coffee and finished setting up it was about 3.45 before I detected the GRS. It was near the far limb by then, and wasn't as clear as it could have been. As you say it would appear then fade with the seeing. As I'm not usually out at this time I decided to move on and got to bed again about 6. It was very chilly! :)

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Stu

Stu

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I confess I nearly used it myself! I came inside at about 2am to warm up with a cup of tea, and then woke myself up with a big snore just before 3! Popped straight out and caught it pretty much bang on the meridian.

Although it was mighty cd, and there was dew around I managed to keep the scope clear which was great.

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Special K

Special K

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Great report and a nice selection of periphery equipment sounds to have come in handy! 15 seconds with the dryer sounds very efficient! I need to make a concerted effort for the GRS before too long. I'm lacking a higher power EP to get me up to around 170x though and think I need a bit more push to really tease out the Spot. The leap from 120x to 240x using the Barlow is just too much!

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Stu

Stu

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I reckon you should still see it at 120, I used to be able to get it in the 66mm at around that mag. Certainly though x150 to x180 would be optimum in reasonable conditions.

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