Jupiter tonight (7th May 2017)

[John]

OK so it will be rather close to a 92% illuminated moon in the sky but the forecast is clear here and there will be a Great Red Spot transit on view so I'll have a scope pointed at Jupiter tonight

Just got to decide which scope .......

According to Cartes du Ciel, the pair will be around 1 degree apart so it should be possible to get both in the same FoV at 76x with the Ethos 21mm in the 12" dob

[Peter Drew]

Ready and waiting here in Tenerife. 

[chiltonstar]

...touch and go for the weather here (Oxford).

Chris

[John]

I think we might get some thin cloud later here. Mind you, Jupiter can sometimes look superb through a thin hazy cloud layer

[Alan White]

Clouded out here at the minute, may get lucky, who knows.

[John]

I can see banks of cloud to the North. Hope they stay there ....

[Size9Hex]

Thanks John, I'd not spotted that. Patchy cloud here, so fingers crossed. Hope you get a good view yourself. It'll be interesting to compare the two alongside each other.

[David Levi]

All set up with clear skies here in Cardiff, waiting for the telescope to cool down.

[andrew63]

Just been looking at the pair - well framed in low power. The scale is amazing, with our moon and the pinprick Galilean moons strung out around Jupiter.  Looks good in binoculars too - and with naked eye !

 

andrew

 

 

[andrew63]

To complete the scene, a satellite just sped by and dissected the moon  !  Anyone else see it, around 10.10.

 

andrew

[laudropb]

Thanks for the heads up. Seeing not great here and difficult to see much detail, but the GRS is certainly there in fleeting moments.

[Piero]

No chance over here in Cambridge either..

[John]

I've got both the ED120 and the 12" dob out at the moment.

The ED120 is actually doing a better on jovian detail because the seeing here is rather wobbly plus the moon shining straight down the dob tube is reducing the contrast of Jupiter quite a bit.

I put the 31mm Nagler into the ED120 and got a lovely view of Jupiter and it's 4 moons in a line in one side of the FoV and the whole moon on the other side. Really cool

 

[chiltonstar]

In the event, it has been very clear here since dusk: quite an amazing sight in my ED80 with a 32mm Plossl, and with the naked eye. The GRS was very obvious even at x125, and still pretty good at x200 - seeing goodish.

Even my wife commented that the pair look spectacular (she normally is unimpressed by things astronomical). I made the separation (centre to centre) a bit more than 1 degree, maybe 1.4 degree??

Chris

[Davey-T]

Had 5 minutes view of Jupiter and moons using the 152mm and 31mm T5 Nagler then it all went cloudy.

Dave

[niallk]

Pretty good seeing here: with a little patience, periods of several seconds of stunning clarity with lots of details visible at 330x in my 15" dob.  Superb stuff - some of my best views ever of turbulence trailing the GRS.

Also had Jupiter and moons with the GRS visible at one edge of the fov, with the limb of the moon just visible in the other at ~62x.  The moon was also arresting tonight: whatever way the illumination is it was beautiful to look at all the ray patterns full disc. I just toured around in awe using low to high mags.

So glad I threw the scope out to cool earlier - I nearly skipped it because I've to be up early for work tomorrow

[David Levi]

I couldn't get the moon and Jupiter in the same field of view. Well, not satisfactorily. With my supplied 25mm eyepiece, a fuzzy, colour distorted (red/blue) Jupiter was on the edge of the fov and the limb of the moon on the other side.

Despite a bit of bleaching from the almost full moon, the GRS looked great. Seeing was fair to good I would say, as I achieved reasonable views of Jupiter with 200x magnification. However, the view was sharper at 125x. My collimation check showed a bit of atmospheric distortion.

[Highburymark]

got about 15 minutes of observing in with Tak FC-100 before the clouds ended things here in central London. Best views of Jupiter at around 150x with Nagler 5mm - nice clear GRS - that with no scope cooling time at all. If only we'd had another 30 mins......

[Peter Drew]

Perfectly clear here in Tenerife (surprise, surprise!) Moon and conjunction with Jupiter putting on a good show. GRS transit nearly over now, seeing not the best but good enough for 250X with a C8. Gassendi and Aristarchus well placed near the terminator. Might have to put a jumper on over my Tshirt If I stay out much longer!  

[davehawkins]

Sky cleared here about 9. The view of the moon and Jupiter together in binoculars was quite impressive but what surprised me was when I turned my SW 200p on Jupiter.

Despite the glow of the moon it was one of the best views I've had, could clearly see the GRS and well defined bands of atmosphere at 200X ( X2 barlowed 10mm SLV ).

Was this due to the moons glow reducing the contrast against the sky or quite good seeing I wonder.

[Stu]

Some good, if brief views here too. GRS looking nice, a little muted in colour because of the glare but seeing was generally quite stable. I was playing with my OMC140 so no chance of both in the same field, had to rely on the 80mm Finder for that, looked great, bet it was something else in a better scope!

[Stu]

7 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

In the event, it has been very clear here since dusk: quite an amazing sight in my ED80 with a 32mm Plossl, and with the naked eye. The GRS was very obvious even at x125, and still pretty good at x200 - seeing goodish.

Even my wife commented that the pair look spectacular (she normally is unimpressed by things astronomical). I made the separation (centre to centre) a bit more than 1 degree, maybe 1.4 degree??

Chris

Chris, good old SkySafari had it at around 1.26 degrees at 10pm, and approx minimum at 1.15 degrees around midnight so you were about right  

[YKSE]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Chris, good old SkySafari had it at around 1.26 degrees at 10pm, and approx minimum at 1.15 degrees around midnight so you were about right  

Yes, looks very good.

I took out 80ED after midnight when there was a gap among clouds. with Jupiter on axis, the Moon was fully inside with spare space with 24mm MV showing 2.74° TFOV.

Had a look at Jupiter in a way which I don't usually do, i.e. running the low powers to see how the two main bands looked like. 24x or 25x (25mm and 24mm) could only make out one band, while 30x + showed both bands well. Both with the Moon inside and outside FOV. Also learn a bit how these EPs are baffled against stray light when the Moon is outside FOV.

[andrew63]

It was one of those events which could be enjoyed whatever equipment you had.  All we need to see now are the iPhone photos !

 

andrew

[Mark at Beaufort]

I had the Orion VX8 out during the day to view the Sun in White Light so left it out to view the Moon and Jupiter.

It was interesting that I was able to see Jupiter in daylight using the Moon as the guide.

Wanted to view the Moon's SE Quadrant starting with Clavius  and Schiller and then moving South to try and view Drygalski. Well libration was not in my favour but had lovely sharp views of Segner, Zuchius, Bettinus, Kircher and Wilson. Not able to see Bailly. Then viewed Gassendi.

Found that the ES82 6.7mm was giving the best view (134x) so moved down to Jupiter to view the GRS. Interestingly I found that my Moon filter took away the glare and showed nice band details and the GRS was clearer.