awful seeing or bad collimation ??

[wesdon1]

Hi all. Just wondering, has anyone else viewed Jupiter and Saturn recently in UK and had terribly blurry and distorted views of said Planets ? I have a big 8 inch Dob and i'm wondering is my collimation out, or is it awful seeing conditions causing my problems ? I viewed said planets through my 5.1 inch Newtonian reflector during last years best viewing times for said planets and the views were amazing. Now i do know that at the moment, said planets are relatively low on horizon, until later in year when they will climb significantly higher, but even when i viewed said planets low on horizon earlier in the year last year, i still managed decent views ? I'm at a loss to explain whats wrong tbh ?? So i would greatly appreciate anyone elses experiences recently, and whether they have noticed similar issues as mine ? Thanks.

Wes, Liverpool, UK ( Bortle 8-9 ) 

Skywatcher Newtonian Reflector 130/900. Skywatcher Dobsonian Newtonian Reflector 200/1200. Skywatcher Newtonian Reflector 114/500. Skywatcher EQ5 Deluxe Mount. Skywatcher EQ2 Mount. Skywatcher EQ1 Mount. Various low end eyepieces. 2x and 5x Barlows. Infinite enthusiasm...

[johninderby]

Gave up on Jupiter and Saturn last week when I had the chance to observe. Just no detail at all. Very disapointing. They are just so low down at the moment I suppose bad seeing is to be expected. 🙁

Edited May 4, 2020 by johninderby

[Pete Presland]

Jupiter and Saturn so low at the moment it is a difficult time to observe them. I image/observed them 2 weeks ago, the view was dreadful.

You might want to ask a moderator to move this thread to the "Planetary observing" section where you should get more responses.

[Waddensky]

Mars is a bit better later this year, but both Jupiter and Saturn will take a few more years to clear the horizon significantly from mid-northern latitudes, unfortunately. Yes, the amount of air most likely hinders your observations.

[wesdon1]

On 04/05/2020 at 11:05, johninderby said:

Gave up on Jupiter and Saturn last week when I had the chance to observe. Just no detail at all. Very disapointing. They are just so low down at the moment I suppose bad seeing is to be expected. 🙁

You descriptions of them are exact same as my experiences. After few responses i received so far, i'm 99% certain it's the seeing conditions combined with them both being too low at the moment. Thanks for your reply.

Edited May 6, 2020 by wesdon1
spelling

[wesdon1]

19 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

Jupiter and Saturn so low at the moment it is a difficult time to observe them. I image/observed them 2 weeks ago, the view was dreadful.

You might want to ask a moderator to move this thread to the "Planetary observing" section where you should get more responses.

Yes i'll ask Moderator to move it to Planetary, Thanks. The view was/is indeed dreadful. No detail, just a blurry mess. Should be much better later in the year.

[Spikey]

4 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

Yes i'll ask Moderator to move it to Planetary, Thanks. The view was/is indeed dreadful. No detail, just a blurry mess. Should be much better later in the year.

All sorted and moved. 😉

[Owen_pryce9317]

After getting my small 130mm dob out this morning I could barely make out detail on jupiter (could see two bands). Saturn was very small. This was done at a magnification of 162x. As I am new to the hobby I don’t know if this is too much power for jupiter. I was definitely happier with saturn than Jupiter.

Think I will wait until July when they are both at opposition. So overall I was wondering if anyone could give me optimal magnification for jupiter on a 5” aperture.

[Pete Presland]

6 hours ago, wesdon1 said:

Yes i'll ask Moderator to move it to Planetary, Thanks. The view was/is indeed dreadful. No detail, just a blurry mess. Should be much better later in the year.

I don't know if you image at all, but this was all i managed the other week. Barely make out the equatorial belts.

Just a question as well, is you scope left outside or do leave it out for a while to allow it to cool to outside temperature before using?