Observing at 11 degrees elevation

[chiltonstar]

The rain cleared the murk here a little and Jupiter was visible as it should be - a worthy competitor to Venus!

At 11 degrees elevation though, the seeing was far from perfect, with fractions of a second of detail every minute or so, with the GRS nicely visible. Later, when Jupiter is higher, I have a house and some trees inconveniently positioned so it was 11 degrees or nothing! Best seeing I've had for Jupiter so far this year though.

This quick image shows the amount of detail I could (intermittently) see (180 Mak, AS1224). Oh for a more southerly location!

Chris

Edited June 9, 2019 by chiltonstar

[MarsG76]

Seeing that much detail in the eyepiece is some view.... I love those rare moments where I can push Jupiter to 500X mag and it's massive, clear and detailed in my dob.... rare but WOW so I share your excitement.

 

[chiltonstar]

2 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Seeing that much detail in the eyepiece is some view.... I love those rare moments where I can push Jupiter to 500X mag and it's massive, clear and detailed in my dob.... rare but WOW so I share your excitement.

 

At UK elevations for the gas giants, normally x150 to x250 seems to be the best range of mag, although I have used much more when they are higher in the sky.

Chris

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

That's a nice pic. I'm slightly envious!

Around 8 hours ago the skies cleared here revealing a glorious summer night. Incredibly clear skies and despite the summer twilight, to the south Jupiter hanging like a bright jewel in the sky.

Ditching the Startravel 120, the now unused Explorer 130/650 was pressed into service. The reward being my best view of Jupiter to date using a BST Starguider 8mm and Sky-Watcher deluxe x2 barlow.

Amazing, I wanted to go around the house waking everyone up. A good hour was spent observing until a neighbour's trees interupted the view. Then Saturn appeared and another nice view. I swear I observed the Cassini division but I may have just blinked! Still with clear rings, Iapetus and Titan flickering the evening was complete.

I'm obviously easily pleased, but I really must save up for a planetary scope...

 

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Stu]

You did well there Chris. The few views I've had of Jupiter this apparition have been fairly dismal, with little or no detail visible. I confess. I did not spend long at the eyepiece though so I'm sure more would have revealed itself in time.

[John]

Good report Chris.

I managed a short session on Jupiter last night / early this morning with my Tak FC100. Detail was there but needed to be worked at. I found 129x gave the sharpest and most contrasty views. The N and S eq belts were clear and dark with uneven fringes. The S temp belt was less well defined and the NTB even fainter. Darker caps showing at both poles but again not strongly defined at all. While the GRS was not on display last night, the most striking feature was the Equatorial zone between the 2 main belts which was rather darker than I recall last observing season. Either a lot of festoons etc in there or just darkened surface features perhaps ?

Nice to see the giant planet again anyway

[David Levi]

3 minutes ago, John said:

the most striking feature was the Equatorial zone between the 2 main belts which was rather darker

I'm glad you've mentioned that because I've been thinking the same thing about Jupiter during this year's apparition (but failing to mention it!). It's almost as if the north and south equatorial belts are giving off clouds into the area between them making it "less clean".

[Geoff Barnes]

Can confirm from my sighting a couple of nights ago that the equatorial belts are indeed much darker than usual. I'm hoping to go out and have another look in a couple of hours if the skies clear enough, alas the GRS will not be visible here until about 2.30am - too late for me I'm afraid. I've not seen it since I posted the article about it "unravelling" some weeks ago.

[Geoff Barnes]

No luck last night, the cloud refused to clear. But, it looks good for tonight although very windy, though that shouldn't be too much problem for Jupiter high up and a good old hefty 12 inch Dob. According to shallowsky.com/Jupiter/ there will be the amazing sight of Europa transiting at the same time as the GRS is in full view, for once I wish I was an imager! 

( Edit: grrr! 200mph Jetstream above us this evening, clear skies and windy as, Jupiter just a fuzzy mess. Could occasionally make out the GRS as very red tonight, the equatorial belts still very dark, but gave up after half an hour, just too messy up there, shame.  

Edited June 11, 2019 by Geoff Barnes

[MKHACHFE]

Awesome mate. That's pretty much exactly what i saw with my XT8 last week from SE UK at around midnight. Low in the sky for sure, but jaw dropping nonetheless .

 

Cheers

[chiltonstar]

5 hours ago, MKHACHFE said:

Awesome mate. That's pretty much exactly what i saw with my XT8 last week from SE UK at around midnight. Low in the sky for sure, but jaw dropping nonetheless .

 

Cheers

It was pretty good last night for both Jupiter and Saturn, wasn't it. Jupiter was razor sharp for a while around 23:45 after the haze had reduced a bit, with the GRS nicely on show, and Saturn was as sharp as I've seen it this year (x270) with Cassini beautifully defined and banding visible on the disk. Unfortunately, cloud came up here about midnight!

Chris

[MKHACHFE]

18 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

It was pretty good last night for both Jupiter and Saturn, wasn't it. Jupiter was razor sharp for a while around 23:45 after the haze had reduced a bit, with the GRS nicely on show, and Saturn was as sharp as I've seen it this year (x270) with Cassini beautifully defined and banding visible on the disk. Unfortunately, cloud came up here about midnight!

Chris

Unfortunately, I can't really stay out much past 1am and there is a huge oak tree blocking my southern view. Saturn clears it too late/early at the moment. According to stellarium,it should be in view for me by the end of the month. Can't wait. But I'm happy just gawping at Jupiter till then.

 

Cheers