The sweet smell of honeysuckle.....

[Stu]

.....and the sound of flatulent horses.

The two most obvious accompaniments to my observing session last night. Bet you didn't expect that!

Not sure what the horses are eating in the field over the road but there you go

I had a session just on Jupiter for an hour or so. The seeing was coming and going, and unfortunately the flight path last night from Heathroq seemed to be an almost direct hit on Jupiter which was not helping! I had one plane go straight through the field of view, made me jump!

The seeing was going completely to pot whilst the vapour trails cleared and I'm sure there must be longer term impacts even once the moat obvioua signs have settled.

Regardless of all this, in the stiller moments I was getting some decent detail coming through. I've found that very critical balancing of the focus on the binoviewer does help pull out the detail. Luckily my orthos both have dioptre adjustment which makes life easier as the Mark IVs do not.

In terms of the views, I was certainly not getting the fine detail available on the best nights, but generally they were consistent with those being reported currently. The Northern and Southern Temperate belts seem clearer than I've noticed in past apparitions. There was one clear festoon visible and over the course of an hour or two, GRS rotated into view. Nicely orange, the moments of better seeing showed how it was nestled into the SEB with the separation there, but not as clear as I've seen before.

Photos attached taken using Samsung S9 with a fonemate holder which seems to work pretty well.

[Beulah]

Nice report on Jupiter! It's a great excuse for a grab and go session. 

 

I'll have your flatulent horses and you can have my midges! They like to go for the eyes...

Observing's out for me at the moment...

 

[Stu]

8 minutes ago, Beulah said:

I'll have your flatulent horses and you can have my midges!

Maybe they are keeping the midges away here  

I have been struggling in the back garden because even with the bat flitting around the midges are ferocious. Would need a flock/fleet/herd of bats to do any good I think!

Of late, I have been observing from the front of my house, which has the dual benefits of observing over fields (with aforementioned horses!) and also that the midges all seem to be in the back garden so I don’t seem to get bitten.

[iPeace]

Ah, nothing like the sweet smell of flatulent horses.

 

[chiltonstar]

Horses & Honeysuckle! I'm surrounded by them too..

Nice session by the sound of it Stu. I had my wee ED80 out in the field to get a better view of Saturn - I was surprised that even at 7 degrees above the horizon, views were quite stable for most of the time with Cassini clearly visible. Maybe some hope for this Mars apparition, despite the low altitude.

Chris

[Captain Scarlet]

Midges I can handle, it's the horse-flies that scare me. They have a particularly evil look, they don't budge when you try to shake or brush them off, and worst of all I'm allergic. If I get bitten on the hand, it looks like a boxing glove shortly thereafter.

[davidc135]

Midges, hedgehogs and a hornet's nest in my garden. Hmm, will I regret my live and let live good intentions? Another evening of fine seeing with the grs very colourful and clearly separate from the seb.  David