No detail on Jupiter

[geoflewis]

1 minute ago, John said:

The seeing conditions seem good this evening. I only have my little 70mm refractor out but the detail on Jupiter is surprisingly well defined. 2 main belts and 2 futher belts N and S of those, polar darkening and hints of a couple of festoons coming off the N Eq Belt. Nice

 

It's just cleared here, sort of caught me out, so I'm only just opening the obs no time to cool down the OTA. We'll soon see if I've missed a trick.... A quick look through my 40mm eyepiece is promising though, but imaging is another ball game completely...

[DaveL59]

ahhh if only, the LH edge of the image is SE so don't think I'll be seeing much of anything tonight here in kent...

[Stu]

19 minutes ago, John said:

The seeing conditions seem good this evening. I only have my little 70mm refractor out but the detail on Jupiter is surprisingly well defined. 2 main belts and 2 futher belts N and S of those, polar darkening and hints of a couple of festoons coming off the N Eq Belt. Nice

 

Not bad is it John? I have the Tak out tonight for another quick session and there is quite alot of detail visible. Nice festoons and yes, the two additional belts all visible within a few moments of first looking. I guess that's why we like these here Taks

[John]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

Not bad is it John? I have the Tak out tonight for another quick session and there is quite alot of detail visible. Nice festoons and yes, the two additional belts all visible within a few moments of first looking. I guess that's why we like these here Taks

Of course you then start wondering if a larger aperture scope would exploit the decent seeing even better, and before you know it you have a scope collection developing in the back yard

The 70mm has shown nice splits of Epsilon Lyrae, Izar and Delta Cygni plus a great view of Albireo though - it deserves to be getting some starlight this evening 

[Stu]

28 minutes ago, John said:

Of course you then start wondering if a larger aperture scope would exploit the decent seeing even better, and before you know it you have a scope collection developing in the back yard

The 70mm has shown nice splits of Epsilon Lyrae, Izar and Delta Cygni plus a great view of Albireo though - it deserves to be getting some starlight this evening 

I enjoy whichever scope I have out John, as I'm sure you do. The 70mm will be giving you very enjoyable views I know, and it is rewarding to achieve views or splits with a smaller scope than normal. I confess I'm pleased that you are now enjoying the benefits of a 70mm scope having previously been more inclined to stay over 100mm. Your Ranger setup looks so easy to pop out for a quick session which is one of the key benefits, and keeps you engaged when time is short or the weather breaks brief.

I just so happen to have the Tak out tonight, probably only for 20 mins at the eyepiece but I'm enjoying the views of Jupiter more in this last week than I have for the whole of this year and back into last aswell!

Anyway, I'm rambling! Even though the seeing was more variable than Friday night, I was seeing some similar detail, in some ways more easily than in the Mewlon. My binoviewers basically give me x100, x150 and x200 in the Tak. The festoons were clearer at x200, but dropping to x150 showed me an additional belt in the Southern Polar Region, I guess perhaps the S S Temperate belt, but I must confess to getting a bit lost by trying to relate these maps to the reality of the view! Call myself a planetary observer? Meh!

[John]

Yes, the Ranger has "shown me the light" with regards to small and very portable scopes. I'm working out how best to pack it for a trip to Arizona in September.

 

[geoflewis]

A frustrating session for me, ended by clouds moving in from the north about 30 minutes ago. Views in the eyepiece early on were promising, but the camera never really came good. I've captured several AVIs, but a quick processing of a random sample doesn't show much promise, so I fear they'll end in the trash can, the same as those from last night. I'm not sure if it was me getting out late and imaging without cooling down the OTA, or just poor seeing as I noted that Norfolk and anything further north remained under the receeding jetstream tonight...

Perhaps all of the above...

Just poured myself a good Irish Whisky that my daughter got me for Fathers' Day, so all's well with the world 🥃👌

Fingers crossed for tomorrow night by when the jetstream should be a good deal further north.

Edited July 1, 2019 by geoflewis

[Mike_S]

Got the bands to show up on my phone camera for the first time tonight. Was clearer in real life. Getting better : 

[nikkita]

Hi everyone, 

Total newbie here. Only picked up first scope yesterday (pretty basic Jessops ta800x80 for a whole £8). Watching Jutiper is a definite wow. 

Eyepieces I have look about as cheap as you can get but 20mm with 3x barlow is making out one band and 3 moons. Maybe 4 if one's right next to planet right now. 

Anyway, was excited and just wanted to join in really.

Nikki 😊

[geoflewis]

17 minutes ago, nikkita said:

Hi everyone, 

Total newbie here. Only picked up first scope yesterday (pretty basic Jessops ta800x80 for a whole £8). Watching Jutiper is a definite wow. 

Eyepieces I have look about as cheap as you can get but 20mm with 3x barlow is making out one band and 3 moons. Maybe 4 if one's right next to planet right now. 

Anyway, was excited and just wanted to join in really.

Nikki 😊

Hi Nikki and welcome to SGL,

Well done viewing Jupiter with your new scope and yes, you will have seen Europa close to Jupiter, as it transitted the planet earlier this evening - not that I could see it from my cloudy location. Europa's shadow will have been following across Jupiter's disc and the GRS (Great Red Spot) is currently transitting too, so it's a good night for observing the 'King of Planets'.

Best regards, Geof

[nikkita]

11 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Hi Nikki and welcome to SGL,

Well done viewing Jupiter with your new scope and yes, you will have seen Europa close to Jupiter. 

Thank you, I wouldn't have known which moon was which, and to be perfectly honest I wasn't really expecting to see much at all but knew it was Jupiter. 

Have already hit ebay earlier for a used 20mm plossl and a 2x "deluxe" barlow. Would something about 12.5mm be a good choice for the next one I get? 

I think I'm hooked already

[geoflewis]

9 minutes ago, nikkita said:

Thank you, I wouldn't have known which moon was which, and to be perfectly honest I wasn't really expecting to see much at all but knew it was Jupiter. 

Have already hit ebay earlier for a used 20mm plossl and a 2x "deluxe" barlow. Would something about 12.5mm be a good choice for the next one I get? 

I think I'm hooked already

 

I'm not familiar with that scope, but I'm guessing that the 800 is its focal length and the 80 is diameter of the objective (or mirror) so a 20mm eyepice will give you x40 magnification (800 divided by 20). The x2 barlow will take that up to x80 magnification. A 12.5mm eyepice would give you x64, so with the barlow that's x128. I suggest that you see how you get on with the 20mm eyepiece with and without the barlow before buying more eyepieces.

[nikkita]

23 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

I'm not familiar with that scope, but I'm guessing that the 800 is its focal length and the 80 is diameter of the objective (or mirror) 

Yes it's an 800 focal length reflector.  And sadly after today's spending the 20mm will have to keep me going for a while anyway. Have a rather limited budget when it comes to hobbies.

 

[geoflewis]

7 hours ago, nikkita said:

Yes it's an 800 focal length reflector.  And sadly after today's spending the 20mm will have to keep me going for a while anyway. Have a rather limited budget when it comes to hobbies.

 

hi Nikki,

My 1st telescope was a similar size altaz mounted reflector that cost about twice what you paid for yours (15 guineas), but that was 50 years ago and fortunately they didn't require it to be paid with actual guineas....!! I had many very enjoyable nights with that scope, the 2 eyepieces and x2 Barlow that came with it, over several years as I couldn't afford to get anything better. I saw many lovely targets with it and it taught me the night sky. A wise astronomy friend told me that those that have to wait to invest in new equipment get much more enjoyment from each addition than those with lots of spare cash that can buy anything anytime. I think that's true for life in general BTW...!! Enjoy this fabulous hobby and the journey that it takes you on.

Regards, Geof

[AusS2000]

This is the best I managed to get last night from Sydney, Australia.

 

[MarsG76]

10 minutes ago, AusS2000 said:

This is the best I managed to get last night from Sydney, Australia.

 

Last night was actually a quite crisp night.. there was heaps more details in view through the eyepiece.... perhaps your focus is slightly out?

[AusS2000]

23 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Last night was actually a quite crisp night.. there was heaps more details in view through the eyepiece.... perhaps your focus is slightly out?

Think I might need to collimate. I recently did a 2,500km road trip with the scope in the back of the car.

Also, the focus is a bit coarse on a Celestron SCT. Might look at a motor control.

Edited July 13, 2019 by AusS2000

[MarsG76]

1 hour ago, AusS2000 said:

Think I might need to collimate. I recently did a 2,500km road trip with the scope in the back of the car.

Also, the focus is a bit coarse on a Celestron SCT. Might look at a motor control.

I have the 8SE, so it's similar to your Evo 8.... identical except for color?? I added Bobs knobs and a JMI focuser to mine... that made collimation and focusing SOOO much easier, faster and much more accurate.

 

Attached is my best ever image of Jupiter from last year.... imaged using the Skyris 618C when the seeing happened to be perfect that night...

 

But this year I wasn't lucky enough to get as good seeing yet (hopefully).. but so far I captured these :

 

 

Edited July 13, 2019 by MarsG76

[AusS2000]

Mine’s a lowly 6. Couldn’t justify the 8.

But Bob’s Knobs are definitely on the wish list.

[MarsG76]

16 minutes ago, AusS2000 said:

Mine’s a lowly 6. Couldn’t justify the 8.

But Bob’s Knobs are definitely on the wish list.

the knobs and the focuser are essential for planetary imaging.... you're already fighting the atmosphere, no need to add the battle of the shaky OTA to the equation.

 

[Stargazer33]

Agree about the collimation knobs and the electronic focuser. I made my own focuser for my Revelation 2" R&P focuser.

Focusing is so much easier when you're not having to battle 'scope wobble!

[MarsG76]

16 hours ago, Stargazer33 said:

Agree about the collimation knobs and the electronic focuser. I made my own focuser for my Revelation 2" R&P focuser.

Focusing is so much easier when you're not having to battle 'scope wobble!

Absolutely.... and the details just pop into focus when is a steady atmosphere and you're focusing electronically and slowly.