A daytime attempt on Jupiter...

[Stu]

Well GRS and a shadow transit of Io are theoretically visible at around 8.15. I shall make a no doubt failed attempt to pick them up in the daylight. Worth a go anyway. The shadow should be visible until around 8.30 and GRS until about 10pm.

[Alan White]

Good luck with that Stu, still clouded out further East in Essex.

 

[John]

I think I might have a try at that too

Thanks for the prompt Stu.

[cloudsweeper]

Love the optimism going on here!  Later, Saturn and the Moon are close, but at only about 12deg.  And it's cloudy here right now.

Anyway, hope you have some success Stu and John!

Doug.

 

[Stu]

7 minutes ago, John said:

I think I might have a try at that too

Thanks for the prompt Stu.

Let's see how we get on. Not easy to pick up that this early without goto, but I've got a pretty good idea where it will be so will have a go. Good luck too John!

[Stu]

Annoying small clouds just in the wrong place at the moment, haven't picked it up yet.

EDIT got it in the finder right where I expected a few mins agao, lost it behind a small cloud again now, before I could get the scope focused on it.

[Captain Scarlet]

I’ll be trying for Jupiter a little later, it’s too low behind some flats for me right now. For the short time before it disappears behind a Magnolia. Need to eat first though...

[Stu]

Just finally managed to get the scope on it, not helped because my finder had been knocked way off. Missed the shadow transit by half an hour but GRS looking nice, despite dodgy seeing

[gajjer]

Well there's nothing much else happening so I thought I'd give it a go with my Raspberry Pi camera. I have made an arrangement to allow me to fit any of my Canon lenses to it in place of the lens on the Pi camera.

I have high hopes. The lens is a 70 - 300 zoom, the problem is that as I zoom the image goes out of focus. Clearly the distance between the camera sensor and the lens is not quite right yet.

Nothing ventured!

cheers

gaj

[Stu]

Just picked up the faintest moon now, Callisto.

[gajjer]

You're just showing off now! All I have is clear blue sky! Something I would not normally complain about I might add.

Well done.

gaj

 

[Stu]

Tee hee! It was mighty frustrating not being able to pick it up for so long. Hope you sort your spacing!

Can just see it with the naked eye now

[Alien 13]

I never understood why everyone is not observing/imaging not only planets but even stars during the daylight, after all they dont suddenly vanish during the day, I learnt that when I took some daylight flats with my camera without the "T shirt" filter, there were hundreds of them....

Alan

Edited July 15, 2019 by Alien 13

[John]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Just finally managed to get the scope on it, not helped because my finder had been knocked way off. Missed the shadow transit by half an hour but GRS looking nice, despite dodgy seeing

I tried at around 8:30pm for a while but with no luck. Got distracted by something else non-astronomical for an hour or so so missed out. I'm back out now and have just caught the end of the GRS transit but the seeing is not that good here. Some low thin clouds getting in the way don't help.

From when I've tried this previously I recall how you are straining to see the target and then all of a sudden there it is and you wonder how you have been missing it !

 

[Alan White]

Thanks Stu for the initial post.

I decided to have ago, missed the earlier transit due to cloud,

but cleared and got a great view of the GRS, which was great. 

As you say dodgy seeing, but who cares.

First Light with the 15 mm Panoptic and 5mm Nagler, so a great short session, then a little very bright Lunar.

Back in as have an early appointment at work.

 

 

[Stu]

31 minutes ago, John said:

From when I've tried this previously I recall how you are straining to see the target and then all of a sudden there it is and you wonder how you have been missing it !

Exactly that John! Sums up my experience this evening. I always get caught out by how fast it moves too, picked it up earlier on in the finder then it had shifted more than I expected when the cloud cleared. Nice views of GRS and quite nice detail in the occasional steady patch.

Tried Zeta Herc for a laugh, no chance!

Picked up M13 and M57 looking surprisingly bright despite the moon.

Fingers crossed for some clear skies tomorrow for the partial eclipse

[Stu]

22 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Thanks Stu for the initial post.

I decided to have ago, missed the earlier transit due to cloud,

but cleared and got a great view of the GRS, which was great. 

As you say dodgy seeing, but who cares.

First Light with the 15 mm Panoptic and 5mm Nagler, so a great short session, then a little very bright Lunar.

Back in as have an early appointment at work.

 

 

Glad you caught it Alan. Nice to try for a challenge, I'm sure I could pick it up earlier than 9 now my finder is aligned and I've left the scope focused for my 24mm Pan.

[Ibbo!]

A tin of gloss and a paintbrush interferred with my attempt, sorry for the swearing.

Now set up and focused just waiting r seing to settle (I hope)

Haze coming back in Moon is going yellow again.

 

[John]

4 minutes ago, Stu said:

...I've left the scope focused for my 24mm Pan.

That is one of the challenges with daylight observing - unless you leave the focuser at focus for a specific eyepiece, it's very tricky to know that you are actually at sharp focus as you scan a bright sky. If the focus is too much out, you can be looking right at Jupiter and not see it's faint, expanded disk.

Worth the effort when you do manage to get it though. Jupiters features seem to look better defined and more vibrant when there is plenty of light still left in the background sky.

 

[Stu]

19 minutes ago, Ibbo! said:

A tin of gloss and a paintbrush interferred with my attempt, sorry for the swearing.

Forgiven, I do hate glossing!! 😱😱😱

Packed up here, but had some surprisingly good views given the seeing. Saturn was about the best I've seen it this year, Cassini looking quite sharp at times.