Jupiter and Saturn last night....

[chiltonstar]

Last night's conditions here produced a clear sky and excellent seeing for an hour even at Jupiter and Saturn's low altitude. The Moon near to Jupiter seemed almost to enhance the seeing.

A transit of Io was just beginning, and the small disk could be seen just beginning to touch Jupiter, and then moving across as a clearly-defined creamy-white disk across the North Equatorial Belt for some distance. Ganymede was clear as a slightly darker clear disk, with minimal flaring around it from the seeing. Both Jupiter's main belts were beautifully defined for 20 minutes or so. I never caught the shadow transit as cloud had descended by then......

Saturn was very well defined, with the view snapping in and out almost like a NASA image for the odd second or two, with a razor sharp Cassini visible all the way round and plenty of band detail on the disk itself.

Scope: 180 Mak, x190 for Jupiter, x270 for Saturn, both with ADC.

Chris

[Stu]

Excellent! Really good when you catch the decent seeing and it sounds like you did just that Chris.

[banjaxed]

My images of Jupiter have been a bit fuzzy lately and thought being so near the moon last night it would be even worse but I got the best image yet and could clearly see the bands an 4 moons. 

Not complaining just confused. 

[Stu]

The Moon does seem to have magical properties; it steadies the seeing and clears clouds away too!! 😜

[chiltonstar]

Just now, Stu said:

The Moon does seem to have magical properties; it steadies the seeing and clears clouds away too!! 😜

....we all notice how often clear nights coincide with full  moon! 

Chris

[John]

1 minute ago, chiltonstar said:

....we all notice how often clear nights coincide with full  moon! 

Chris

So often the way !

[Ignoro]

Here seeing is great now and was last night... The only problem are neighbors tourists who keep some superfluous light in their garden... Apparently they like mosquitoes, so I'm waiting for them to go to sleep and writing this post before I have a last look at Saturn, Jupiter is behind a tree...

Although I could move my scope...🐸

[Ignoro]

I moved my scope and Saturn was great, but some clouds came after a short while, so now the session is definitely over. Of course the neighbors turned off their lights in the meantime....

The Cassini was very sharp tonight with my heritage 130... I lost my collimation cap and first time collimated completely without it and I think I've mastered the no tool collimation. I'll check with my local astronomy guru next time we meet, but I think it was pretty good...

Anyway, low planets are better than no planets 🤗

Edited July 18, 2019 by Ignoro

[chiltonstar]

Your clouds haven't reached here yet - the view of Saturn is glorious, with a very sharp view (x240) considering it's so low down, with lots of ring detail!

I too have security light nearby and of course the nearly full Moon is a nuisance, but it hardly matters for Saturn.

Chris

[Ignoro]

I forgot to bring my shroud to where I'm now so it does make a bit of a difference for me, but next time I'll bring it

And my clouds are pretty far away I think, enjoy...

[cletrac1922]

Not done any viewing this week, due to full moon this weekend

Couple of nights ago, Saturn was only a postage stamp distance from the moon

Jupiter was almost overhead

Have a go tomorrow night, as moon will be rising later

Monday night, doing presentation for cubs group, and Joey's camp for 150 kids saturday afternoon and evening

During the afternoon, do solar viewing, and Saturn, Jupiter and some other DSO around Southern Cross and Scorpio

John 

[MarsG76]

Excellent report of a excellent night.... those views are what we all crave....