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Wow - just wow!

Neil W

By Neil W
in Getting Started With Observing

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Neil W

Neil W

Posted
Posted

I managed to get some time last night to use my back garden 'micro observatory' for the first time. Was planning on spending half an hour or so observing the moon (trying to work out the Apollo landing sites..!) but very soon I was distracted by Jupiter - the viewing conditions last night must have been very stable- I was clearly able to see the 'bands' on jupiter and 3 of its moons...its the best view I've had of Jupiter - and I was bouncing up and down!!!

Tried to explain the jubilation to the wife.....she just didn't get it!!

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Linda

Linda

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We understand it very well. :headbang:

 

Jupiter was in opposition, a very short time ago. That means that it is in an optimal position for us on earth to view it. It will become less good from now on, so enjoy it as long as it lasts. The other planets, Mars and Saturn, will be better towards May. Except for people in South-Africa, they can see Saturn beautifully now.

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Marky1973

Marky1973

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Yeah, my good lady wife seemed a little grumpy when I woke her up at 3am to view Saturn for the first time....

First viewings are always exciting - but even last night, having a look is just awe inspiring.....amazes me to think I can see these planets so well from my garden....while all those people around you are sleeping - blissfully unaware.... (of the planets, I'm not up to no good in the dark or anything....)

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Stu

Stu

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4 minutes ago, baldeliftman said:

Hi if we could get EastEnders to put stargazing in there script my wife would have a look,better still coronation street they could have ken barlow with a telescope looking at the planets.They would all be doing it. 

Funny, I was using a Barlow to look at Jupiter last night ??. I shall start calling him Ken from now on ?

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g30rg313

g30rg313

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8 minutes ago, baldeliftman said:

Hi if we could get EastEnders to put stargazing in there script my wife would have a look,better still coronation street they could have ken barlow with a telescope looking at the planets.They would all be doing it. 

Can I just comment on this?  I am female and I would just like to point out that it is reversed in my house....my boyfriend isn't so bad that he watches coronation Street mind but he does sometimes watch eastenders.  I watch neither to be honest.  I love going outside with my scope and when I try to explain anything astronomy wise to my boyfriend I can just see his eyes glaze over as he completely does not get it.  I have convinced him to see the moon at least lol.  

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Eddster

Eddster

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I showed my boys (6 & 9) Jupiter last night and they were blown away. I managed (somehow) to get the youngest to spend some time at the eyepiece and pick out the cloud bands and count the moons he could see. We share your WOW! Happy days (or nights, as it were).

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brantuk

brantuk

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My wife came outside with me last night to observe Jupiter - we both had a blast for a few hours - she also comes to all the star parties with me and often to club observing sessions. She's very much into it like me and if one or other of us wanes a bit - the other is always there to re-stimulate interest.  The only bit she doesn't enjoy is when I get carried away in conversation with someone discussing gear lol. Girls are very under represented in astronomy right now - but there's more than there used to be and I think it's slowly growing.

Jupiter was beautiful in the eyepiece last night - there were some very nice festoons I'd never seen before except in pics - and the Io eclipse was exciting (she'd never seen that before). We were viewing manually at 140x so couldn't ramp up the gain too much, but we had some smashing views. :)

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Piero

Piero

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Great report mate! :) 

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if television were not available. Possibly amateur astronomy would engage more people?  At least people would socialise a bit more rather than staying immobile on a sofa and watching people moving, shouting and laughing inside a box!

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cloudsweeper

cloudsweeper

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2 hours ago, laudropb said:

I showed my wife Jupiter and the Moon last night. She was suitably impressed. In fact she said " now I understand why you do this " Seems like the right time to broach the siting of an Obsy lol.

My wife came out to see the shadow of Ganymede which I had been getting excited about, and she too was impressed about clearly witnessing an event about 390 million miles away.

My hints about a bigger telescope are still not bearing fruit however!

Doug.

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JemC

JemC

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3 hours ago, Marky1973 said:

Yeah, my good lady wife seemed a little grumpy when I woke her up at 3am to view Saturn for the first time....

I wonder why :dontknow: 

must admit though you are braver than me :icon_biggrin:

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Marky1973

Marky1973

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13 minutes ago, JemC said:

I wonder why :dontknow: 

must admit though you are braver than me :icon_biggrin:

Probably stupider.....

All joking aside, she was impressed when she saw Saturn though and is still keen to have a look when she gets the chance - the fact that I am imaging most of the time isn't that interesting to her though.... so I'll have to buy a planetary scope to keep her involved! :-)

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Chris

Chris

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Nice report :), last time I was out the view of Jupiter was being well and truly destroyed by the jetstream so I'm glad at least others are getting good views! 

Te micro obsy sounds cool, did you post any pics in the DIY obsy section? If so I'll take a look :)

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DevonSkies

DevonSkies

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20 minutes ago, Chris Lock said:

Nice report :), last time I was out the view of Jupiter was being well and truly destroyed by the jetstream so I'm glad at least others are getting good views! 

Te micro obsy sounds cool, did you post any pics in the DIY obsy section? If so I'll take a look :)

Yes, dreadful conditions down here the last couple of nights - thin ice cloud and jetstream turbulence messing everything up. Pity, as I was keen to try out my new ZWO camera on Jupiter. Oh well, good to hear some people were getting a decent view!

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BGazing

BGazing

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12 hours ago, Marky1973 said:

Yeah, my good lady wife seemed a little grumpy when I woke her up at 3am to view Saturn for the first time....

You have one good tempered lady. Mine would have probably decapitated me had I ever tried to wake her up at 3am to watch Saturn.

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Eddster

Eddster

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10 hours ago, BGazing said:

You have one good tempered lady. Mine would have probably decapitated me had I ever tried to wake her up at 3am to watch Saturn.

Mine too. I think the scope would receive a sledgehammer too if I tried to pull that stunt!

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