Great Red Spot - nows a good time

[John]

Right in the middle of Jupiter's disk at time of typing. Good opportunity if you want to see it. Looks pinker whan I was expecting too. Stunning jovian surface structure visible in fact

[Moonshane]

I agree John. Moons are in a nice configuration too.

[bingevader]

Couldn't get him crisp tonight.

Managed to spot the GRS, but surface detail was poor.

[John]

It comes and goes but it's enjoyable. I'm finding 177x and 199x with my 12" dob the crispest. Above that and the "coming and going" of the good detail is much more frequent. Sometimes 265x or even 318x works great so I guess the seeing is not as good as it might be tonight.

[Saganite]

Once again the 12" Lightbridge fails to deliver on Jupiter, despite the collimation being spot on, the 13 mm Televue plossl

giving the sharpest view at 117x, anything higher and the disc just becomes an ever fuzzier ball.

The ED100 did not fare any better, so I assume it is poor seeing again?

[John]

If the ED100 was not good then the seeing conditions local to you must have been pretty poor. ED100's are usually fine performers even in mediocre conditions.

[Saganite]

The transit shadow of Io is just visible on the limb of Jupiter, so the seeing in this area seems to have improved somewhat.

I am using a Vixen LVW 8mm , giving 190x and that power was certainly not possible 2 hours ago.

[Moonshane]

Try a light pollution filter or baader neodymium. Both help tone down brightness and increase contrast on jupiter, mars and moon.

[Saganite]

I will try that thanks. Certainly though the seeing was better by 4 am.

[John]

Good stuff

I packed in around 1:00 am due to some cloud cover plus suddently feeling the cold. Missed the transit events unfortunately but the GRS views earlier were some of the best I've had. It seemed quite distinctly salmon pink last night. Some great belt structure too with several plumes extending from the NEB into the EQ zone, large pale rifts in the NEB itself and a whopping great long dark barge around the NN temporate belt that seemed to be chasing the GRS around the disk. Best viewing of Jupiter this year

[bingevader]

John, you lucky thing!

I was getting very fleeting moments of average seeing with the 8mm plossl, 150x in the 8".

Backing off to the 11mm, 109x, was better, but then detail was less evident.

[spaceboy]

I think the combination of fairly settled skies and good transparency helped the GRS looked noticeably orange in my eyes with plenty of detail being revealed in the temperate belts.

M42 was the real shocker for me as I could easily see stars around the trapezium area amongst the nebula. Needless to say the trapezium stars themselves were effortlessly split with the 11th mag E & F stars glowing like tiny ruby's. oddly the last time I viewed M42 in such favourable conditions I was able to see an obvious pink hue to the nebula itself but it was not so on this occasion. If anything I would have said there was only a very slight hint of a pale green to the dust clouds.

[cotterless45]

Sounds like a lucky night. Here , Jupiter was wobbling like a big yellow jelly, even just before midnight when it starts to get better. Tried everything, the clarity was there but the seeing was awful. Glad that you made the most of a splendid sight,

Nick.

[John]

Thanks folks. The seeing was quite good up to around 200x with the 12" last night. I did use higher powers for short bursts but the crisp moments of seeing got a lot shorter then. 150x - 180x was a much better place to be last night.

[faulksy]

was viewing it last night john from a dark site   using the 5mm pentax 320x and it was breath taking the spot looked a lovely pale orange and the eq belts were amazing, need to get the 3.5 xw now as there was lots more to give in my 14 last night. well happy

[jetstream]

was viewing it last night john from a dark site   using the 5mm pentax 320x and it was breath taking the spot looked a lovely pale orange and the eq belts were amazing, need to get the 3.5 xw now as there was lots more to give in my 14 last night. well happy

Excellent Mike! You know that the Leica zoom can be configured from 3.5mm-7mm?  Congrats for the fine viewing and for getting that great Pentax.

[faulksy]

that sounds like a plan gerry. wonder how they compare to the pentax xw

[jetstream]

Mike, you are getting some great seeing and using lots of mag, I think its under those type of conditions that differences in eyepieces show. The Pentax may be hard to beat for sure, but even if the Leica only equals them the adjustability of the zoom allows us to "catch" the seeing with higher mags, more often, ie no EP switching.

The Leica has some quirks and may not be for everyone, although my best views of the planets/moon have been through the LZ. It offers some very good nebulae views as well surprisingly.

If you can, try one, just to see if its to your liking.

[John]

was viewing it last night john from a dark site   using the 5mm pentax 320x and it was breath taking the spot looked a lovely pale orange and the eq belts were amazing, need to get the 3.5 xw now as there was lots more to give in my 14 last night. well happy

Your seeing conditions must have been a lot better than mine last night Mike. Up to 200x I got some really nice views of Jupiter but as soon as I pushed over that they became very unsteady. I briefly compared the 5mm Pentax XW to the 5mm Myriad but there was not much point because the image would not hold up enough to compare anything !

The 3.5mm XW is just as good as the 5mm BTW but I rarely use it in my 12" F/5.3. It's a great eyepiece with my ED120 though

Below 200x though and the views were excellent - 200x plus was like dropping off a performance "cliff" !

Normally 265x (Ethos 6mm) is the staple high power for my 12" with 318x often used.

Jupiter does not really benefit from ultra-high magnification though, IMHO, aside from the seeing conditions. The nature of it's features and their contrast variations are most often best seen by stepping back and accepting a smaller overall image scale. At least thats how I've found it over the years.

[Stu]

I think the combination of fairly settled skies and good transparency helped the GRS looked noticeably orange in my eyes with plenty of detail being revealed in the temperate belts.

M42 was the real shocker for me as I could easily see stars around the trapezium area amongst the nebula. Needless to say the trapezium stars themselves were effortlessly split with the 11th mag E & F stars glowing like tiny ruby's. oddly the last time I viewed M42 in such favourable conditions I was able to see an obvious pink hue to the nebula itself but it was not so on this occasion. If anything I would have said there was only a very slight hint of a pale green to the dust clouds.

Which scope was that with Nick? Sounds like you had fab conditions F is always really tough for me from home unfortunately

[Stu]

I agree John. Moons are in a nice configuration too.

They were, weren't they. Just had the 15x50 binos with me but managed to split Io and Europa at around 13" separation. Looked great

[faulksy]

good point john about power, but that pentax was great just like first light. dan k was also looking at jupiter and was amazed. the festoons and unbelivable detail on the bands, and the great red spot was a bright orange not salmon like. which is how i have usually seen. need to work out what my paracorr gives me as well. probaly pushing over 320x. and it was the same on m82 never seen so much detail in a galaxy. cheers

[John]

Great stuff Mike. M82 gets really interesting at higher powers. It's one of my favourite galaxies, especially when it has a bright supernova in it like it did last year

The XW's are just great eyepieces in every respect - amazing to think they were designed many years ago for terrestrial spotting scopes. It's taken TV a decade to catch them up. The 5mm XW is a simply stunning lunar eyepiece too   

[spaceboy]

Which scope was that with Nick? Sounds like you had fab conditions F is always really tough for me from home unfortunately

It was in my 250PX using a 9mm ortho so roughly x133. I have split the E & F stars in an 80mm f/6 scope in the past so you must have it bad where you are mate

I found an image on the web and have marked the other fainter ? stars which I'd not usually see within the nebula. I'm not sure if it is due to them usually being blown out by the surrounding nebula or they only respond to good seeing ???

M42_Trapezium_SII_centercrop_9-22-12.bmp

[Stu]

It was in my 250PX using a 9mm ortho so roughly x133. I have split the E & F stars in an 80mm f/6 scope in the past so you must have it bad where you are mate

I found an image on the web and have marked the other fainter ? stars which I'd not usually see within the nebula. I'm not sure if it is due to them usually being blown out by the surrounding nebula or they only respond to good seeing ???

M42_Trapezium_SII_centercrop_9-22-12.bmp

I reckon they are pretty lousy here Nick. Even in the Vixen the F star is a challenge most of the time.

Great stuff getting those stars, I guess the transparency must have been very good, aswell as the seeing