Very nice views of Jupiter last night

[Chipela]

Having been very cloudy for the last two months in Finland I had almost given up the hope of getting clear skies any time soon.

However, yesterday evening the clouds gave way and suddenly sky looked good for observing. Almost full moon was about to raise and I quickly judged that moon and possibly Jupiter are the only targets worth observing. I waited for a couple of hours and when stepping out, was welcomed with a great view of Jupiter and Moon at the sky side by side. (I later learned that I just had missed the Io pulling clear of the Jovian disk that John reported in another thread.)

What a view it was! Quick peak at Moon with my 10mm Delos (*) suggested that seeing was good/very good and I swapped to 4.5mm and aimed at Jupiter. Compared to my memories from the last couple of observing sessions, the Jupiter looked *so much* sharper and more contrasty. I was immediately able to see the two wide cloud belts and most of the time also two narrower dark belts closer to poles. The upper wide belt (I guess actually the lower one since I have a Newtonian) split to two belts now and then. All in all, a joy to watch! I saw Io close to Jupiter but like I mentioned above, it had already pulled clear from Jovian disk.

The only downside was that after getting warmer clothing from inside and collimating my OTA just to be sure I only had 5-10 minutes of observation time left until the clouds appeared again. But funnily enough, Jupiter looked better through a light layer of clouds than during the last observing sessions with a clear sky!

(*) I have started to immensely like the 10mm Delos + SW150PDS combo for observing the moon. The moon fills the view nicely and everything looks razor sharp!

[astromackem]

Good report. I saw the GRS (With colour too!) for the first time last night. Mindblowing.

 

 

[Piero]

Very nice reading Chipela.

I recently received a Delos 12mm and I think I can understand your feeling for your 10mm. These eyepieces offer stunning views. 

[laudropb]

Very nice report. Jupiter was certainly looking good last night.

[Eye]

Great report! I had a similair experience myself with Jupiter last night, thankfully the skies were clear all night and morning where I live in Sweden.

[John]

Another very good Jupiter night tonight. No GRS until the early hours though .....

3 nights in a row observing !

[neil groves]

I had a good hour observing Jupiter last night, the best views I can remember and that was with the planet fairly low altitude, unfortunately some high cirrus cloud rolled across the sky and it was time to pack my stuff back into the house but I did clearly see the two main belts across the planet along with two more clearly seen north and south of these and faintly I could see two more right next to the north and south poles of Jupiter (6 in all) .....no red spot though.

In fact I was so pleased with the views that I dragged my wife out to have a look lol..

I was using a skywatcher ED120 and tried a 20mm eyepiece ( 45X ) and a 5mm ( 180X ) both were amazing in their own right, the 45X gave a small bright relatively sharp image with 4 moons clearly visible, 2 of them right near the disk, the 180X gave a much larger view although somewhat blurry in comparison and at this power I could clearly see shimmer in the atmosphere.

All in all though a very pleasing experience.

Neil.

 

[Chipela]

Another clear night!

I observed exclusively Jupiter for an hour or so. This time there were no clouds suddenly covering the sky and ending the session. To my eye, the sky was at least as good as in my original observation report. And this was the first time I saw the great red spot!

I even snapped a photo of the great sight. (Through eyepiece, no stacking, jpg original, so not that great quality but hey, it's my first one! )

[neil groves]

I'd have been well pleased with this pic of Jupiter, what camera did you use?...what scope and eyepiece/power was this shot at?.....

 

Neil.

[Chipela]

Thanks Neil!

The technical data is:

Equipment: SkyWatcher 150PDS / Televue 4.5mm / Canon EF-S 24mm 1:2.8 / Canon EOS 100D (handheld against the eyepiece)
Exposure: 1/80, F3.5, ISO800
Processing: Cropping, levels, removed some jpg noise

[mdstuart]

That pic reminds me of my view. The non spot band looked darker than the other visually and that comes out in your pic.

I think the east winds gave us good seeing.

Mark

 

[neil groves]

On ‎2‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 22:56, Chipela said:

Thanks Neil!

The technical data is:

Equipment: SkyWatcher 150PDS / Televue 4.5mm / Canon EF-S 24mm 1:2.8 / Canon EOS 100D (handheld against the eyepiece)
Exposure: 1/80, F3.5, ISO800
Processing: Cropping, levels, removed some jpg noise

So let me guess, now your hooked and your saving for the ccd camera and related software for a planetary voyage?

[Chipela]

On ‎01‎.‎03‎.‎2016 at 19:26, neil groves said:

So let me guess, now your hooked and your saving for the ccd camera and related software for a planetary voyage?

Well, let's just say that planetary imaging would be so much easier for me compared to DSOs because I could do it even from my backyard which has quite a lot of LP!