Probably the worst session ever.....

[Stu]

Ok, I’m over egging it a little but just goes to show not all sessions are wonderful. No ‘Facebook perfect lives’ in my book  

Having seen the heads up from Chris (Thanks!) about the Io shadow transit and GRS, I decided to give it a go from my garden. At 10pm it was only going to be at around 10 degrees, so I set up near the bottom of the garden (120ft from the house!) to get the best view looking back over it to the south.

Scope (140mm Mak which gave very nice views of Jupiter recently) setup on the AZGTI mount, I aligned on the few stars visible at 8.45, checked out Polaris (nice split) and Izar (ok split but at low mag so not bad considering), then sent it to point at Jupiter and went in for dinner.

Back out at 10pm, scope cooled and Jupiter showing just above the tree next to my house. First view through the 24mm Panoptic was not promising. A waving edged plain white disk! 24mm gave x83. I tried 18mm and 12.5mm BGOs at x111 and x160 with not much better result, although at x111 I did manage to vaguely see two indistinct bands, and an orangey patch which I assume was the GRS but I only knew that because I knew what to look for.

I watched intermittently over around half an hour, and some small improvement did show, probably relating to local thermals. So I gave up. It doesn’t matter what scope you have, if the seeing is pants, the views will be too.

I did sneak a quick peek at M13, which showed some nice potential for resolution at a darker site, one to revisit.

So, there you go. A rubbish session with not much achieved, but I guess at least I made the effort and got outside!

[Fieldsy]

Well not as experienced as your self but did manage to see Jupiter but was very hazy. all images very unsatisfactory but still got out with my new QHY and tinckered a little.

[Trikeflyer]

I was out last night too. Decided to get the revelation 12 inch dob out. Had a look at Jupiter and the views were not great. Low over the trees. I honestly thought my scope was well out of collimation, even though I had just collimated it! Turned my attention to globular clusters to see if it was the scope or the seeing. Took in M53, M3, M13 and M92 as these were better placed. Even from a light polluted West Midlands back garden, they all looked reasonable in moments of good seeing. At least It confirmed the scope was collimated pretty well. Spent ages just staring at the globs with a mag of about 125x and they really filled the field of view of my + 2x Barlow and I could get some resolution in the occasional moments of improved seeing. Moved on to M81 and M82, again, given the LP, they were pretty good. Finished on M40 and then the full moon came up. Time to pack away! 

As you say Stu, if the seeing is rubbish and the position of the target is low with obstacles like houses or trees almost blocking the views, the scope becomes a bit irrelevant. 

Steve

[Red Dwarfer]

Don't think anyone had good karma last night . It was high cloud mixed with high haze here ...

Had a quick look at Jupiter and it was a lot more " watery " compared to Sunday night .

Eskimo nebula hard to locate through the haze but turning 180 the Ring nebula was much better .

The Cigar galaxy was briefly very impressive in the 350P but high cloud moved in a matter of seconds ... even before I could move across to Bode's galaxy .

In hindsight , I think doubles were probably the only viable target with the conditions here .

The good news is that a bad or mixed bag session is always followed by a better one .

[wookie1965]

I have looked at Jupiter twice in the last couple of weeks and compared to last year the seeing was terrible low in the sky really awful views. 

[Red Dwarfer]

1 minute ago, wookie1965 said:

I have looked at Jupiter twice in the last couple of weeks and compared to last year the seeing was terrible low in the sky really awful views. 

True enough , but half an hour can make all the difference : 11pm on Sunday Jupiter was low here and the two main bands barely visible ... 30 minutes later three bands were clear plus the darker north and south regions and the GRS were clear too in my 200P . 

[Piero]

The seeing was mediocre last night over here too. I know what you mean about Jupiter.. I could not manage to push above 100x successfully, and below that I could only spot *some indefinite irregularities* on the two equatorial belts. As you said, one of these irregularities could have been the GRS, but just because I know how it looks like. 

Before Jupiter, I spent a bit of time observing the Leo Triplet and M3. Despite the LP, they looked interesting and I was glad I managed to observe a bit of DSOs after months of rain! 

[Ibbo!]

A bit like this then.

I did not continue.

 

[chiltonstar]

Interesting the Mak, Stu!!

I had my 180 Mak out for the transit. The seeing here too was pretty rubbish, although it got better just after Io had left the disk (altitude maybe). I put my ED80 on the other side of the SkyTee and that gave much sharper views, less swimming pool wobble, with a reasonable GRS but barely a sign of the shadow. With the Mak, the shadow was there on and off, but the GRS very hard to see.

I suspect that this will be the story with Mars this year....

Chris

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Ibbo! said:

A bit like this then.

I did not continue.

 

A  bit like that, but the bands were less distinct!  

[Stu]

3 hours ago, Red Dwarfer said:

True enough , but half an hour can make all the difference : 11pm on Sunday Jupiter was low here and the two main bands barely visible ... 30 minutes later three bands were clear plus the darker north and south regions and the GRS were clear too in my 200P . 

I think that is very true. Observing with Gavstar the other night, the views later on were much better. Mind you that was at Ranmore Common so away from houses and central heating flumes etc

[Stu]

2 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

Interesting the Mak, Stu!!

I had my 180 Mak out for the transit. The seeing here too was pretty rubbish, although it got better just after Io had left the disk (altitude maybe). I put my ED80 on the other side of the SkyTee and that gave much sharper views, less swimming pool wobble, with a reasonable GRS but barely a sign of the shadow. With the Mak, the shadow was there on and off, but the GRS very hard to see.

I suspect that this will be the story with Mars this year....

Chris

No sign of the shadow, but I could definitely detect the GRS as an orangey blob every so often. So much worse than other views I’ve had though.

[25585]

You have a 140mm Mak Stu?! What make as not in your signature?

Murky and Moony then clouds down here where I am. Hoping for better on Sun night.

 

[David Levi]

Just to add to the Jupiter woes, I haven't had a decent view of it this season yet. It's good to know that I'm not the only one questioning their scope set up when the views are this bad.

[Stu]

20 minutes ago, David Levi said:

Just to add to the Jupiter woes, I haven't had a decent view of it this season yet. It's good to know that I'm not the only one questioning their scope set up when the views are this bad.

It really does make you question your kit doesn’t it? I have viewed M42 through Gavin’s TEC160 on two occasions (possibly more), but once was at decent elevation and the other with it down at around 10 degrees. The difference is massive. Down low the stars were fuzzy and I don’t recall being able to see E & F clearly at all. At 30+ degrees, the views were exquisite, the best I’ve seen. Pinpoint stars, with the two fainter ones beautifully presented and there with direct vision all the time. If I had only seen it down low I would think that one of the best amateur telescopes in the world was rubbish!

[GavStar]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

It really does make you question your kit doesn’t it? I have viewed M42 through Gavin’s TEC160 on two occasions (possibly more), but once was at decent elevation and the other with it down at around 10 degrees. The difference is massive. Down low the stars were fuzzy and I don’t recall being able to see E & F clearly at all. At 30+ degrees, the views were exquisite, the best I’ve seen. Pinpoint stars, with the two fainter ones beautifully presented and there with direct vision all the time. If I had only seen it down low I would think that one of the best amateur telescopes in the world was rubbish!

I will never forget that view of M42 where E and F stood out like crystals. It was only my second time looking through the scope - it was reassuring to know that I had a goodun. As discussed with Stu before, my TEC140 for some reason didn’t give views like its bigger brother. But maybe it’s just the impact of seeing....

[geoflewis]

7 hours ago, Ibbo! said:

A bit like this then.

That's better than what I got.... I stuck at it for a couple of hours hoping things would improve as Jupiter moved towards transit, but they didn't. Thats two nights back to back when the jet stream wasn't overhead, but seeing for Jupiter's low altitude was dreadful. I'd collimated on Arcturus at much higher altitude and was hopeful - those hopes were soon dashed....!!

[johnfosteruk]

Same here the night before Stu, awful early on and improved slightly later, but not much. Nice to see it's not just me

[Mark at Beaufort]

Stu I did not think you still had a 140mm Mak/Cass and an interesting thread because the weather in the UK has been poor over the last few month. Just in case you don't speak to me again I have had 14 clear nights in California. Last night I had a look at Jupiter with the 12x70 binos and although I could not see the transit it was very noticeable how high it was in the sky.

I am hopiing to visit a darker site tonight to try and view M83 with the binos plus checking out Centaurus.

[Stu]

3 hours ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Stu I did not think you still had a 140mm Mak/Cass and an interesting thread because the weather in the UK has been poor over the last few month. Just in case you don't speak to me again I have had 14 clear nights in California. Last night I had a look at Jupiter with the 12x70 binos and although I could not see the transit it was very noticeable how high it was in the sky.

I am hopiing to visit a darker site tonight to try and view M83 with the binos plus checking out Centaurus.

It seems to have come back my way Mark  

I may well not speak to you again! Sounds wonderful and I hope the binos are doing the job for you. Let us know how you get on with M83!

[chiltonstar]

There's a good transit on Sunday night at 23:30 onwards, with Ganymede and shadow just touching the edge of the disk, with GRS as well. The altitude is higher (20 degrees up) so the seeing may be somewhat improved and give a decent view to those of us with obstructed optics! 

Chris

SS graphic:-

 

 

 

[ASSA]

03.05.2018 03:00 PM, UTC +01:00

Yesterday I completed a full solar eclipse observation session at Jupiter, whose author was Io. According to information, the shadow entered the disk around 21:30 but due to the low position of the planet, the shadow was only fully visible from 22:00 to the end of the event. I have not watched the last 5 minutes and it's a pity because I should check if I can see the shadow to the very end. Seeing was quite gracious, soiled the image, but most of the time you could admire the beautiful GRS on one strip and Io's shadow on the second straight ahead, they wandered together all the time.
At the end of the performance (the last 30 minutes) next to the shadow in the place where Io should be, a second, gentler shadow appeared, rather 150 Skymax has no chance to show the Moon on the Jupiter disk, especially in average conditions. I am waiting for photos from transit to explain it. I set the alarm clock at 3:30 to check out Saturn, Mars and of course look at Jupiter. I wasted 10 minutes of life such a crap hung that I could barely see belts on Jupiter plus shapeless disks of Mars and Saturn, a total failure.

04.05.2018 01:00 AM, UTC +01:00

Oooooh, if someone did not watch Jupiter, let him regret this evening. Super views, even in this small mirror, a gray oval flashed twice (though it could also be dust in the eye :)) in the polar darkening, the south from the side of a thicker equatorial belt, more precisely in such a cloud belt, hmm i mean first layer polar darkening. It showed me a belt here, surprisingly only half the width of the planet had a clear dirty color, the rest drowned in color with a darkening. in this "brown-orange" part of the belt, a gray area flashed on me (probably it's an eye, I'm not sure). I am very happy. It's true that it did not manage to jump higher than 140x but the views are great. More or less it was view like this below, but with color of course.

Regards Luke

Source of picture.

[GavStar]

42 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

There's a good transit on Sunday night at 23:30 onwards, with Ganymede and shadow just touching the edge of the disk, with GRS as well. The altitude is higher (20 degrees up) so the seeing may be somewhat improved and give a decent view to those of us with obstructed optics! 

Chris

SS graphic:-

 

 

 

Thanks might try to give this a go

[25585]

6 hours ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Stu I did not think you still had a 140mm Mak/Cass and an interesting thread because the weather in the UK has been poor over the last few month. Just in case you don't speak to me again I have had 14 clear nights in California. Last night I had a look at Jupiter with the 12x70 binos and although I could not see the transit it was very noticeable how high it was in the sky.

I am hopiing to visit a darker site tonight to try and view M83 with the binos plus checking out Centaurus.

Hope you get good views of Omega & Centaurus A. The latter fascinates me. Considering Hawaii for a southern holiday.