Jupiter: 00:35 am 14-05-18

[John]

Just observing Jupiter with my 12" dobsonian. best views of the year so far of the giant planet. GRS strong orange/pink hue but most noticable at the moment is a massive and prominent festoon extending southward from the NEB, crossing the Eq zone diagonally towards the GRS area. 150x seems to be the optimum magnification at present.

The 4 main moons are in an interesting configuration as well.

Very nice indeed

[Geoff Barnes]

Fabulous John!

I can't wait to see it soon when I've got similar equipment!

[Geoff Barnes]

Just out of interest John, which eyepiece do you think gave you the most pleasing view of Jupiter?

[chiltonstar]

Sounds like a great view in a 12"!  Did you catch the transit of Ganymede plus shadow a bit later John?

Chris

[John]

1 hour ago, chiltonstar said:

Sounds like a great view in a 12"!  Did you catch the transit of Ganymede plus shadow a bit later John?

Chris

Missed that one Chris - I got distracted by some galaxies in a Dragon nearly overhead and a cats eye near the north celestial pole

Jupiter is not on show for long here due to it's low altitude - it pops above a rooftop and I get about 90 minutes before it slides behind the branches of a huge chestnut tree.

[John]

5 hours ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Just out of interest John, which eyepiece do you think gave you the most pleasing view of Jupiter?

Well funnily enough I was using a little 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom on Jupiter last night. The zoom was very useful because Jupiter's low altitude (from here in the UK) means unsteady seeing a lot of the time and you can fine tune the magnification on the fly to get the crispest contrast / detail. When Jupiter has been higher in the sky the 8mm or 6mm Ethos have delivered wonderful views but we are having to be quite inventive to get decent planetary viewing from the UK currently 

Last night the 12mm - 10mm settings (132x - 159x) were giving the best views overall.

 

[chiltonstar]

2 minutes ago, John said:

Missed that one Chris - I got distracted by some galaxies in a Dragon nearly overhead and a cats eye near the north celestial pole

Jupiter is not on show for long here due to it's low altitude - it pops above a rooftop and I get about 90 minutes before it slides behind the branches of a huge chestnut tree.

I feel the pain....I also have a seriously large horse chestnut in the wrong place, so with the planets so low this year, it's either a travelscope+ticket or a very tall pier!

Chris

[billyharris72]

Caught that last night in my 8 inch Dob, at around 00:30  - it really was spectacular. Seeing where I was was so-so, but it was  absolutely unmissable - vastly more obvious that the GRS which I usually find the easiest of the Jovian features.

Billy.

[wookie1965]

I looked last night but it comes up over the houses so my view was very watery. 

[cotterless45]

Bright and wobbly here , getting all the heat from over the town. When it's been good ,x150 is a good kicking off point,

Nick.

[wookie1965]

I only looked with my 15 mm 66x but it was really watery no point in going any higher mag just look worse. 

Paul 

[billyharris72]

3 hours ago, cotterless45 said:

Bright and wobbly here , getting all the heat from over the town. When it's been good ,x150 is a good kicking off point,

Nick.

x150 seems a pretty good result if you're looking over town. I rarely go above about x133 (9mm) on Jupiter these days, and often less - I always find I end up seeing less if I try to push it past that.

Billy.

[John]

Generally I find that Jupiter does not respond as well to high magnifications as, say, Saturn does. I think this is to do with the nature of the features that we are trying to observe on Jupiter, which are contrast changes and tend to be subtle. More often than not I find that backing off the magnification a bit shows more cirspness and detail in the surface features albeit with the planetary disk smaller in the field of view.

 

[Patbloke]

Watched Jupiter for a while last night with my trusty Starwave 102 - 8mm BST, basic 15mm plossl and x2.5 Revelation Barlow with blue filter... lovely and clear, enjoyed the night.

I watched Europa appear not long after midnight which is amazing. I have to say that since Nick advised to download the Jupiter moons app I've enjoyed studying the movements in more detail. I'm also learning patience sitting on my viewing chair, noticing that the longer you look the more you see! That sounds basic but I think it's true that the seeing does change very quickly... (unless it's my eyes drifting in and out of clear vision :-))