Glorious Jupiter and GRS

[Davesellars]

Well... what a way to break a four month hiatus of observing!

I had a couple of hours sleep and woke up at 1:15am armed with the 120ED and my small case of eyepieces.  It was perfectly clear however when I got to my site I was greeted with a bank of low lying fog.  Not really thick stuff but it pretty much snuffing out all stars that were lower than mag 2.  Good job I wasn't there for DSOs!

So... the scope cooled while I setup and the GRS was about to put on a show.  Lined up the finder on the Moon with the 32mm Baader Classic Plossl (really nice sharp view!) and then turned to Jupiter.

The first half half hour the GRS was coming in to view.  Once the scope had cooled down completely more I had a rock steady view using the ES82 6.7mm giving 134x. This was the perfect power for this scope giving great contrast of the cloud belts and detail.

The GRS appeared a really deep orange., kinda smaller than I imagined but then take in the big whorl around it appearing incredibly clear with real detail within it and showing with a distinct darker front and top edge.  Once you take all this in you realise how large that thing is.  Once the GRS had moved sufficiently more central then a trail of smaller whorls in the cloud behind it was easily picked out.  More time at the eyepiece like a couple of minutes with the eye not moving away from the view much more colour would appear in the clouds particularly a brown or terracota/orange. The north belt was also of interest with a knot of dark area just to the right of the GRS (horizontally flipped view) and also a line of dark cloud through the entire north belt as well as a bunch of whorls behind that large dark knot in the cloud belt.  The thinner belt just above the North Main Cloud belt was easily seen.

The Moons of Jupiter were all in the same FOV and gave a really great 3D impression to what was being observed.

The clarity was such that our Moon never really got a look in!  Jupiter suddenly took a hit with the seeing deteriorating very fast and so I packed up around 4:15.  

[Paul73]

Good session. You certainly gave the big lad some good attention! I was too tired to wait for the GRS, so didn't venture out.

I love Jupiter through my ED120. When the atmosphere is stable, the detail is awesome.

Paul

 

[domstar]

A very nice description. Inspiring.

[niallk]

Great report! Nice one

I was out 9pm ish for the Ganymede transit, then again at 11pm ish (scope cooled; rare very steady seeing - image was holding up well at 560x!).  Had a snooze and went back out at 1:30am - clouded out ? I was so looking forward to seeing the GRS, but wasn't to be!

[Davesellars]

Wow! 540x and steady! That must look something quite special.  I probably should have got my dob out...

[niallk]

I was just seeing how far I could push it, given the extremely rare conditions.  Tbh backing off a bit and having more drift time across the fov was better. I was just happy to get out again

Sounds like you had great views of the GRS and whorls in the bands - cracking session!! 

[David Levi]

The GRS is visible now. A more reasonable time than last night. The seeing isn't quite as good as last night though. Still a good view at 200x magnification. No matter, it's the first time for me to observe the GRS, so I'm happy. It really is red/orange as opposed to the muddy brown of the bands. I was hoping to get an early night tonight as it's the 4th time I've been out observing this week and so I'm feeling a bit tired. However, I think I'll watch the GRS for a while before calling it quits.

[Piero]

The GRS is also visible now over here in Cambridge. I could detect half hollow on the north-west side at 150x with some patience. Two festoons on the NEB were also visible. Really pretty image.

[Davesellars]

Glad to hear your got some viewing in last night on the GRS.  I was going to make it out for a second night but a bad back and pretty exhausted from only 2 hours sleep the night before put paid to that idea!  Looking forward to getting out again for DSOs now....