First viewing with mixed feelings

[Stu]

8 hours ago, Mad Matt said:

So great news, and bad news. First the very good news and most important. I followed the advice given re focusing and sure enough i saw a pea sized planet with two clear streaks going through it accompanied by 3 bright moons to the left and one to the right. Really didn't expect to see Jupiter with such clarity, just wish i could take a photo....

 

The bad news is i only got half an hour as the batteries ran flat, adapter should be here tomorrow...

 

Feeling really please tonight

Great news Matt, excellent progress!

As Shane says, with patience and practise you can see plenty of detail. Seeing conditions vary a lot so observing on as many nights as possible gives you the best chance of catching the good conditions.

[Ricochet]

9 hours ago, Mad Matt said:

So great news, and bad news. First the very good news and most important. I followed the advice given re focusing and sure enough i saw a pea sized planet with two clear streaks going through it accompanied by 3 bright moons to the left and one to the right. Really didn't expect to see Jupiter with such clarity, just wish i could take a photo....

 

The bad news is i only got half an hour as the batteries ran flat, adapter should be here tomorrow...

 

Feeling really please tonight

Great news indeed  Jupiter is probably my favourite planet with all the details you can pick out when conditions allow. 

1 hour ago, Knighty2112 said:

Get a bahtinov mask for your scope to help you achieve nearly perfect focus. It does sound more like your were out of focus. I was observing Jupiter last night too. It wasn't great seeing with Jupiter last night, but with a either a 30mm or 10mm EP in my C8 SCT the bands where quite easily visible. It does only talks a small amount for it to be out of focus to be just a smudge of light though. Saturn was much better last night to observe, which I was surprised about as it was lower down in the murk, but good seeing and fine detail visible easily. 

Your scope should pick up these things very well, but focusing is very critical to getting the best view especially at higher magnifications. If possible focus your scope during the daytime on something as far from you as possible. This will get your focus pretty close to be able to then just fine tune focus with very small tweaks when you look at the night sky, but do get a bahtinov mask to use. It is one of my crucial pieces of equipment that I use to make sure focus is spot on for every observing session. 

Are you saying you use a Bahitnov mask for visual observation? Each time you change EP you put the mask back on to refocus?

[Knighty2112]

25 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

Are you saying you use a Bahitnov mask for visual observation? Each time you change EP you put the mask back on to refocus?

I use the mask purely for visual work yes. Not AP. I normally use the mask at the start of the session especially when viewing planets to get the sharpest focus possible by focusing on a bright star, normally Vega. If the seeing withstands much higher magnification I may slew back to a bright star and refocus with the mask again too after upping the EP, but sometimes not depending on if I can get it to focus sharply without it well. If observing stars then I normally can get it just about spot on without the mask, the only time I may use it for stars are if the seeing and the skies are not too great. .

[Astro Imp]

Great to hear you got sorted, most of the time the great folks on SGL can sort our little problems.

[Stu]

7 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

I use the mask purely for visual work yes. Not AP. I normally use the mask at the start of the session especially when viewing planets to get the sharpest focus possible by focusing on a bright star, normally Vega. If the seeing withstands much higher magnification I may slew back to a bright star and refocus with the mask again too after upping the EP, but sometimes not depending on if I can get it to focus sharply without it well. If observing stars then I normally can get it just about spot on without the mask, the only time I may use it for stars are if the seeing and the skies are not too great. .

Interesting. I just do it all 'by eye', and I regularly make small adjustments to the focus whilst observing anyway.

[JOC]

I have a mask too, but have been waiting to use it when trying some astrophotography.  I didn't realise that it might be useful for visual observing.