Jupiter 18 September 2008

[themos]

Visiting grandparents and kids all had a good look at Jupiter tonight!

I cooled the 300P for about half an hour (I've put a 12V fan behind the mirror) and then positioned it just so that it would clear all the branches and trees. Jupiter was at about 15 degrees altitude and cloud was already thickening up at zenith. But we had good crisp views of the colour banding at 125x with the Nagler. All four moons were nicely placed too, two on either side. The SkySurfer III red dot finder, by the way, worked very well, even at that eyepiece power. I used Vega near zenith to align it with the main telescope. I think it's a keeper.

I'm afraid the session was very short. My attempt to bring the 2.5x TV Barlow into play was cut short by cloud finally reaching the southern horizon. Nice to be out for a while though, it's been months.