Great Seeing

[George Jones]

Does Jupiter have cloud belts? My last several sessions have been with hazy, turbulent conditions, and I was starting to wonder. After the great conditions last night, my faith has been reaffirmed. Nice, crisp views of Jupiter and Saturn and lots of other stuff. The Wild Duck (M11) was amazing at x254.

[cloudsweeper]

Yes George.  And apparently there's a big red spot on it too, which I was amazed to see quite easily a few nights ago!  (All the more incredible since it took me 2.25 years to see the thing for the first time.)

Doug.

Edited August 10, 2019 by cloudsweeper

[Stu]

Indeed there are George. Plenty of detail to see when conditions are good. This is my best smartphone shot of Jupiter, also showing a shadow transit of Io I think. At the moment, with the planets down low I struggle to get anything like this which was taken when it was at much higher power altitude.

GRS shows lovely colour and is quite clear when the seeing conditions are good. You can really end up questioning your scope or eyes after a run of poor seeing can't you?

[Pete Presland]

Didn't get the scope last night, but it was good to be out under the stars again. Sounds like you had a good night, a bit windy over here at the moment.