Best view of Jupiter yet..

[astromackem]

The forecast was for 0% cloud tonight so I nipped out with my Dob to have a look.

To my disappointment there was a lot of cloud about so I had a quick look at the moon- pretty good but the fullish moon is not quite as good as the half moon last weekend.

After 10 mins or so I spotted Jupiter appear so I swung the scope over with my 10mm in. Wow- best view yet of the great gas giant.. very clear view of the two main bands with just a touch of detail on them too. The seeing at times was excellent.

It may be time to get more power. Maybe 7mm (170x) or even 6mm (200x). Anyone got any thoughts on this?

Reporting live from Newcastle Upon Tyne (Session 10:30-11:10pm April 30th 2015)

[Pondus]

On a good day (or rather night) you can definitely go higher than 120x (your 10mm) on Jupiter.

Had several observations this spring with magnification >200x. I got the sameish scope as you.

Its definitely worth it to have eyepieces that gives you more than 150x. (maybe in combination with a barlow)

Rune

[cotterless45]

Super report, we had some dodgy haze here. I'd use x200 as a maximum in the 200p. Normally observing isn't that good in this country. You'll find a 6mm TMB quite handy for this, the Moon and other fine targets,

Nick.

[Stu]

Nice report.

The 7mm at x170 should give you fairly reliably good views of Jupiter, this level of magnification seems to work very well for it.

X200 may be useable but on fewer occasions. I would try the 7mm first

[estwing]

Thanks for sharing

[faulksy]

i often use my pentax xw5mm on jupiter and if the seeing is brilliant i use a loaned tv zoom which will take me to over 400x. make sure your well colimated and you should easy get 250x plus

[Qualia]

Lovely report and glad you had a great night. Jupiter certainly is a fascinating planet and personally I find it the most interesting to observe. When it comes to observing Jupiter, assuming collimation is spot on, the right magnification for Jupiter is relative to the seeing conditions. So long as the disk is sharp and well focused, we're doing alright. On average nights, Jupiter should easily handle between 120x to around 170x and on those better, but rarer nights, you may be able to tweak 200x to 250x.

A light blue filter (Wratten 80a) can sometimes help bring out subtle band features, others swear by Wratten 11 or 12 or Neodymium filter but with these I haven't had too much success and most times, I just prefer observing Jupiter without any kind of filter.

Look forward to another report

[Stu]

I was actually very impressed with the Baader Neodymium filter last night. It kept a very natural colour to Jupiter whilst increasing the contrast nicely

[astromackem]

I was actually very impressed with the Baader Neodymium filter last night. It kept a very natural colour to Jupiter whilst increasing the contrast nicely

The thing about Jupiter (or what I notice anyway)- is the brightness through the EP. It may be a bit too bright. Would it be beneficial to reduce this slightly, if possible?

[Stu]

The Neodymium does knock the glare back a little which helps. Also taking the magnification up reduces the brightness, which again helps so long as you keep a sharp image.

Other options might be a variable polarising filter so you can adjust brightness to your taste. I only ever normally use the Neo

[astromackem]

The Neodymium does knock the glare back a little which helps. Also taking the magnification up reduces the brightness, which again helps so long as you keep a sharp image.

Other options might be a variable polarising filter so you can adjust brightness to your taste. I only ever normally use the Neo

Thanks. Good tip. Looking at the prices of some of these filters- this could get expensive!!

[Stu]

Yep

I would try a higher power eyepiece first before the filter options.....

[Moonshane]

I find with our school 8"f6 SW dob, the 15mm plossl and 2x barlow (giving 160x) provides a great match on most occasions so agree with Stu about the 7mm. People often rave about high magnification but in truth Jupiter more often than not is best around the 150x mark in most scopes and sometimes a bit more when seeing is good. You can always use more power but need more patience to wait for fleetingly good seeing.

[mikeDnight]

I've often found that a magnification of around X180 is ideal for the planets, so the 7mm giving X170 would be a good choice. You'll probably find yourself using that power on a greater number of nightsnights than 200+, so in that sense its a safe buy.

Mike

[astromackem]

Another lovely night with Jupiter last night.

Some nice seeing intermittently and a lovely spread of all 4 moons in a line.

I had another 20 minutes or so just trying to tease out some detail. Unfortunately the GRS just had left to the top left after I went out so still yet to see it- if I could pick it out of course.

Cloud & Rain again tonight though!

[Qualia]

Great stuff, Astromackem and it's good to hear you've been back out a little more to investigate Jupiter. It's been really nice weather here recently and over the weekend I spent a fair while with Jupiter wishing it a fair bon voyage and bien viaje . I think this will be pretty much my last session for this season, for usually by the time I finish work, Jupiter is quite low down in the west. 

[astromackem]

Great stuff, Astromackem and it's good to hear you've been back out a little more to investigate Jupiter. It's been really nice weather here recently and over the weekend I spent a fair while with Jupiter wishing it a fair bon voyage and bien viaje . I think this will be pretty much my last session for this season, for usually by the time I finish work, Jupiter is quite low down in the west. 

I'm not having much luck with the weather here- so not much viewing at all. I can't wait until some nice warm clear nights.