Target for Tonight

[Mak the Night]

I may get an hour or so decent weather around 22:00. It would be nice to catch a setting Jupiter. Probably too low when the GRS comes around later though.

Mars is at Transit at 21:47 at an altitude of 16.5°, 1.47 au from Sol (Libra).

I'm not sure what features I'll be able to detect at around 257x.

I may be able to see the northern polar cap again with a red or orange filter.

Saturn is at Transit at 23:06 at an altitude of 17.2° (Ophiuchus). I should be able to see Titan, depending on conditions. I've been seeing more cloud detail recently with a bog standard Wratten #11 filter (TS Optics/GSO).

Of course, it all hangs on the weather ...

 

[des anderson]

Wow,someones going to busy.Hopefully I will be be doing the same. Jupiter and Mars for me are now in no mans land.....But if all goes well Saturn should be just visable for half an hour,before the trees swallow it up.Des

[Mak the Night]

4 hours ago, des anderson said:

Wow,someones going to busy.Hopefully I will be be doing the same. Jupiter and Mars for me are now in no mans land.....But if all goes well Saturn should be just visable for half an hour,before the trees swallow it up.Des

So, did you get to see Saturn?

[Mak the Night]

Well, I got to see a setting twilight Jupiter, it looked very much like the CDC screenshot with Io, Ganymede and Europa visible. Jupiter did look great at 257x but the transparency wasn't up to it and it was a tad fuzzy, even when I dropped down to 200x. I did get first light on my new Celestron Barlow though with it. I also discovered the X-Cel Barlow element unscrews, but that was a bit accidental lol.

Mars eventually came out from behind the clouds and I did see the polar cap, although the conditions weren't up to seeing any detail (257x, 200x). I tried the red filter but it seemed too dark and the #11 seemed problematical as well. The Baader Neodymium was OK, although I couldn't see much apart from a white flash of the polar region and the phase.

I later discovered that my Wratten filters had dewed up. The eyepieces, Barlow and finder scope were fine. Both the Barlow and eyepieces had filter threads, it didn't matter whether I put the filter on the Barlow or on the EP then put that into the Barlow, the filter, and not the EP or Barlow dewed up. I just think that's odd. The finder scope often dews, eyepieces can too, a Newtonian won't as a rule, but I still think it's odd that only my TS Optics/GSO filters dewed and my Baader Neodymium didn't.  I got to see Saturn as well, probably the best all night. I saw the Cassini Division, a bit of surface detail (the #11 helped until the great filter dew event horizon) and Titan, with and without a slightly dewed filter at 257x and 200x. Eventually settling on 200x. I can often easily get 250x but this evening had pants transparency mainly. Saturn still looked pretty good at 200x though.

All in all, not a bad night, apart from the rather anomalous filter dewing! And I got to see Titan.

[Mak the Night]

If the weather holds, I've decided 22:10 will be a decent time to start twilight observing.

Jupiter 22:10, azimuth 75.8°, altitude, 18.3°, Leo. Io just kissing the eastern limb and the GRS should be visible.

Be interesting to see if the conditions enable me to see Thebe.

Mars 22:10 (Transit 21:43), azimuth 6.5°, altitude 16.3°, Libra. I'm not too optimistic of seeing any surface features after last night, although the northern polar cap may be visible again.

Saturn 22:10 (Transit 23:02), azimuth 347.2°, altitude 16.3°, Ophiucus. Saturn should improve as it approaches Transit, Titan should be visible to the east of Saturn (inverted left).

I'm still not sure about solving the filter dewing problem, they dewed up even in their respective cases. In July!

 

[Stu]

Looks like there is a nice shadow transit on view around that time, be good to spot that if you get a chance.

You won't see Thebe though; anything outside the four Gallilean moons is way too faint to spot visually in normal scopes.

I wonder whether Valles Marineris will be visible. It should be there and I've always wanted to see it. Might have a go myself.

[Mak the Night]

If the conditions are good I might try my new 7mm X-Cel.

If Jupiter is visible at 21:50 the GRS should be prominent. Io is still in front of Jupiter.

By 23:10, Jupiter will be at azimuth 88.1° and an altitude of 9.3° (Leo), which I still may be able to see. The GRS will be on the eastern limb by then, and I find often more difficult to discern in this position.

[Mak the Night]

I saw the Moon with binoculars this morning, around 04:45, azimuth 259.9° at an altitude of 10.4° (Taurus).

There was some Terminator detail considering the phase.

May not be so easy to see anything tomorrow at the same time if I set up early.

There are still some interesting features though, like Grimaldi, Cavalerius and Pythagoras.