13/5/17 21.45 Heads up - shadow transit now

[Stu]

Thanks to Chris for the original heads up, but if you have some clear sky there is a very nice shadow transit (Io) happening right now.

Io is also transitting but I have not been able to detect it, I missed the start of it as it was light and it is always harder to pick up once away from the limb darkening. Might catch it towards the end of its transit though.

Good luck!

[DRT]

Do you know the timings of the Io and shadow transit, Stu?

dont want to tear myself away from Eurovision without good reason ?

[John]

Thick clouds and light drizzle here. The only transit I'm going to see involves a decent beer going from bottle to glass and then into me !

Hope some have got some clear skies though

[johnfosteruk]

The only transit I'm seeing is the one that just drove down the road in the rain, hope some of you get good views tho

6 minutes ago, DRT said:

Do you know the timings of the Io and shadow transit, Stu?

dont want to tear myself away from Eurovision without good reason ?

Wow, didn't know anybody still watched that

 

[Stu]

7 minutes ago, DRT said:

Do you know the timings of the Io and shadow transit, Stu?

dont want to tear myself away from Eurovision without good reason ?

Not the same without Sir Tel  

The Io transit ends at 22.52 and the shadow at 23.39

[DRT]

Just now, Stu said:

Not the same without Sir Tel  

The Io transit ends at 22.52 and the shadow at 23.39

Indeed, but the Romanian yodling rappers have made up for it ?

Thanks for the timings. Might just have a peek through the C5. 

[Fozzie]

Thanks for the heads up.... I was just about to ask if that's what I'm looking at, 72mm ed and 5mm slv doing to job very nicely.. and my first shadow trans to boot.. 

I'm keeping an eye on Eurovision... Italy to win and UK dead last at 150/1 is worth a cheeky £2... papa wants a new Delos!

Evening all!

Fozzie 

[Moonshane]

Just managed it between the banks of cloud which are mercifully mobile :0)

[darknight]

I would love to see it, but completely cats n dogs here big one too!

[Chris]

Thanks for the heads up, it's clear here so off out! 

[Alan White]

What a wonderful sight while the cloud slowly crept in from the west.

Just had some really good viewing of Jupiter though, best so far.

My new Giro Ercole was wonderful, brought me luck perhaps in a cloud free io transit.

[Stu]

Glad I caught it early, seeing has gone downhill badly by the time I went out again. Clear spells between the clouds but obviously a fair amount of turbulence up there too.

Some very good views earlier though, some nice belt detail and a few nice festoons visible in addition to the shadow. I was only able to push up to x148 with the Nag zoom but that was enough.

[Chris]

Just clouded over now so packed away, but had both the 80mm refractor and 6" Dob trained on the transit. An amazing site through the Dob, a jet black dot of a shadow plus lots going on with the belts, I thought I saw a chunky festoon mimic the GRS. The frac wasn't as clear a view, but I could just make out the shadow when I knew where to look. I did a bit of fault finding with the frac as I've been getting a slight diffraction spike when viewing Jupiter, turns out it was the prism diagonal, so went Jap style sitting on the grass and the view improved so I could more clearly see the shadow transit as well as lose the faint spike. The neighbour came over to have a look and I think he was impressed with the views through both scopes, he had never looked through a telescope before so I'm really pleased to have shown him a shadow transit of Io onto Jupiter as his first ever thing to see! A great night so thanks again for the heads up  

[DRT]

I can't be certain that I saw it as I knew where it should be and was unsure whether or not I was convincing myself it was there. I only had the C5 and 11mm Plossl so pretty low mag and the seeing was rubbish. I think I need to put this one down as a miss  

[Chris]

37 minutes ago, Stu said:

. I was only able to push up to x148 with the Nag zoom but that was enough.

Me too, about 150x with the 8mm BST seemed to work best in the Dob throughout the session, but having said this I did get some cracking views @ 200x with the 6mm SLV early on.

[Chris]

7 minutes ago, DRT said:

I can't be certain that I saw it as I knew where it should be and was unsure whether or not I was convincing myself it was there. I only had the C5 and 11mm Plossl so pretty low mag and the seeing was rubbish. I think I need to put this one down as a miss  

Sounds like similar views to my Vixen, Derek, I really wouldn't have been sure unless I had the Dob also lined up to confirm! It was razor sharp in the Dob, I'll count myself very lucky by the sounds of it. I hope you catch it next time, maybe breakout the C11 seeing permitting  

[DRT]

29 minutes ago, Chris Lock said:

Sounds like similar views to my Vixen, Derek, I really wouldn't have been sure unless I had the Dob also lined up to confirm! It was razor sharp in the Dob, I'll count myself very lucky by the sounds of it. I hope you catch it next time, maybe breakout the C11 seeing permitting  

What's most annoying, Chris, is that the VX12 was just a couple of yards away in the shed but my dodgy old knee is preventing me from moving anything heavy at the moment ?

[Peter Drew]

I was fortunate to have a very good Jupiter session for my first night's observing since returning from Tenerife. Early views of the shadow transit were excellent with up to 400x usable on the 16" SCT, later, another of the "missing" moons gradually emerged out of eclipse. Finally Io appeared exiting the disc. Clouds rolled in after that but a very good start.  

[Stu]

6 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

I was fortunate to have a very good Jupiter session for my first night's observing since returning from Tenerife. Early views of the shadow transit were excellent with up to 400x usable on the 16" SCT, later, another of the "missing" moons gradually emerged out of eclipse. Finally Io appeared exiting the disc. Clouds rolled in after that but a very good start.  

Sounds great Peter! Must get up to visit you sometime!

[Stu]

7 hours ago, Chris Lock said:

Sounds like similar views to my Vixen, Derek, I really wouldn't have been sure unless I had the Dob also lined up to confirm! It was razor sharp in the Dob, I'll count myself very lucky by the sounds of it. I hope you catch it next time, maybe breakout the C11 seeing permitting  

It was very clear in the Tak when I first went  caught Jupiter which I think was around 20.45. A lovely jet black, very sharp disk. No chance of spotting Io itself unfortunately but still very nice.

[Fozzie]

My skies dropped off very quickly after half 10ish.. Very evident shadow tracking along the S'thrn belt (always get them mixed up... Shoddy really as I should know by now).. That was at 84x in the little 72mm and 5mm slv.. Didn't pick it up until I removed the neodymium filter.. Also which was strangely impressive the missus picked it out just after 10 too so the seeing must have been quite good at the time..

thanks for the heads up on this stu.. Just a shame the Eurovision didn't bring in the bacon.. Although credit credit due, over 100 points... That must have been a 5000/1 shot!

ta

fozzie

[Chris]

7 hours ago, DRT said:

What's most annoying, Chris, is that the VX12 was just a couple of yards away in the shed but my dodgy old knee is preventing me from moving anything heavy at the moment ?

Grrr!  I hope the knee improves for you soon, Derek, that must have been annoying. You've tried a 6" f/8 right? I can't believe what a punch mine packs, and it's proper grab and go, possibly even with a dodgy knee?  

[Chris]

15 minutes ago, Stu said:

It was very clear in the Tak when I first went  caught Jupiter which I think was around 20.45. A lovely jet black, very sharp disk. No chance of spotting Io itself unfortunately but still very nice.

One day I'll look through a Tak...one day  

[Chris]

11 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

My skies dropped off very quickly after half 10ish.. Very evident shadow tracking along the S'thrn belt (always get them mixed up... Shoddy really as I should know by now).. That was at 84x in the little 72mm and 5mm slv.. Didn't pick it up until I removed the neodymium filter.. Also which was strangely impressive the missus picked it out just after 10 too so the seeing must have been quite good at the time..

thanks for the heads up on this stu.. Just a shame the Eurovision didn't bring in the bacon.. Although credit credit due, over 100 points... That must have been a 5000/1 shot!

ta

fozzie

That's impressive from the 72mm at 84x! I think those SLV's help with their low scatter and high transmission. Really nice that you shared the transit with your other half  

[Alan White]

I managed to stick with the 6mm SLV on the ED 100 and got a very sharp black shadow but lost sky with cloud at 10.15.

I also saw festoons and the GRS like festoon activity that Chris Lock observed, thought I was going mad when I saw it, so thanks Chris for confirming my sanity!

The views in the very good moments were most stunning.

Oddly my friend who lives 5 miles away and was viewing at the same time with his 6se could not see the transit or get the same quality of view, shows how it's very much subject to your location.

What a nice evening session, really glad I got this gap in the virtual permanent cloud of late.