Jupiter 21/5/17

[Stu]

Rounded off a nice weekend of observing with a quick 20 mins on Jupiter last night.

Some high haze around, but I caught a few clear patches.

GRS not visible at the time, but I did catch two festoons showing clearly dropping into the equatorial zone.

The nicest feature, which I haven't seen for a while was a clear, brighter separation in the SEB running for about 1/3 of length of the belt, starting from the left hand limb as seen in a frac view with diagonal. This had a little turbulence to its edges, as did the NEB.

Seeing limited me to x148 again, and it started to deteriorate as I watched, probably passing through a heating flume or similar.

FC-100DC with Nag Zoom used at between 6 and 5mm, any more just gave a bigger, softer image with less detail.

[chiltonstar]

I managed an hour before the cloud returned, but the seeing wasn't brilliant and Jupiter was just above a neighbour's CH flue, although I did just spot the festoons - best viewing at x190 with the 180 Mak. I moved the scope well away from the house and looked at a few close doubles, but the seeing on these was not brilliant either, so I assumed it was weather rather than heating plume....

Chris

[iPeace]

Seeing here was pretty turbulent, but sticking it out is hardly a chore when it's 18 degrees C until 2 AM. Started early enough to catch Io just as it was heading for cover. Crisp views very intermittent and so stayed at 103x early on, eq. band and belts well defined, with the belts and zones on the South side more obviously separating the polar region than in the North - more of a gradient effect there.

As Saturn ascended we moved to get some half decent views of it, again only intermittently good, but still worth going to 144x. Much later, as the GRS was rotated into view, we managed to catch that as well.

Finally backed off the magnification and spent the rest of the session just surfing around all that goodness in Scorpius and Sagittarius at 15x - 32x. At the latter, Saturn is quite a sight among all that starry stuff, further dramatized by residual flashes of far-off lightning from a distant storm.

A long, memorable night at my Aegean balcony observatory.

[Fozzie]

Nice Stu, very similar viewing in Yorkshire although nice and clear by 11:00, but Jupiter was just disappearing over roof tops so the seeing was atrocious by then..

Very clear banding early doors, I was out around half 9 and was viewing 112x, noticed fleetingly the festoons, but yes, your quite right the clear bright separation of the SEB and south temp belt..  Just missed the GRS due to neighbours roof, but a very enjoyable two hours, with some of the clearest views I've had in a while.. and what a difference not having to nudge nudge the mount constantly..

This week could be good for some more twilight viewing!

Ta

Fozzie

[Stu]

14 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

but yes, your quite right the clear bright separation of the SEB and south temp belt.

Interesting. I thought what I was seeing was the separation in the SEB itself, with the Southern Tropical zone below the SEB? Easy to get confused with the seeing coming and going though.

[Fozzie]

27 minutes ago, Stu said:

Interesting. I thought what I was seeing was the separation in the SEB itself, with the Southern Tropical zone below the SEB? Easy to get confused with the seeing coming and going though.

Stu you could be right, in my eye the darker band I'm referring to just looked to Southerly to be part of the SEB, hence why I thought it was the STB.. but looking at Steve @Ibbo! great photo, there is a distinct lightening running through the belt which would have been very prominent before the GRS made it's appearance, and im sure your tak does better things with the photons than my starwave (so your image must have been simply stunning), even if it doesn't look quite as majestic on the mount being stubby and short in comparison!

It was though a great sight in the EP!! Bring on more nights like that..

[Stu]

42 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

Stu you could be right, in my eye the darker band I'm referring to just looked to Southerly to be part of the SEB, hence why I thought it was the STB.. but looking at Steve @Ibbo! great photo, there is a distinct lightening running through the belt which would have been very prominent before the GRS made it's appearance, and im sure your tak does better things with the photons than my starwave (so your image must have been simply stunning), even if it doesn't look quite as majestic on the mount being stubby and short in comparison!

It was though a great sight in the EP!! Bring on more nights like that..

Thanks Fozzie, let's hope we get some more clear nights soon to be able to compare notes and check!

Having looked through one of the f11 scopes at Jupiter, I know that the views are not too shabby at all!!  

[Fozzie]

Look out... it's brightening up outside!