Early Evening Jupiter and Saturn

[John]

First clear evening for quite a few days here. Cold and blowy though. The slim lines of my Takahashi FC100-DL are less bothered by the gusts than my other scopes.

I've had a quick look at Jupiter and Saturn before they drop behind the tree branches low towards the south west. These two are around 1.5 degrees apart now so I can fit them into the field of view with the 24mm Panoptic eyepiece. At 38x the image scale is small but exquisitely sharp. Jupiter's four Galilean moons are strung out like pearls all on the same side of the planet. A nice arrangement   A couple of equatorial bands are showing but not a lot else at this magnification and with the planet so low. Saturn and Titan shine on the other side of the field with the Cassini division quite clear.

Suddenly Jupiter shows some odd scintillation - horse chestnut branches are not a great filter !

Just in case I can't get a decent view when these planets are really close together in the sky later in the month, at least I've seen the pair sharing a telescope eyepiece this evening

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by John

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Excellent! I really hope the clouds dissappear to see both these planets together. I assume I will get them both in the same FOV with my 2" 30mm aero ED. They will be small though.

Maybe squeeze them both in the 17.5mm Morpheus with the 76% afov..

Nice report John 👍

[John]

On Mars now.

The disk size has diminished noticeably since I last observed Mars - just 13.8 arc seconds now. At 225x - 300x the south polar cap is just about visible when the planet steadies between wind gusts. Some dark markings showing on the disk including the distinctive snout of the Syrtis Major, the pale "bay" of Aeria and the dark "coastline" of the northern edge of the Sinus Sabaeus.

If the wind gusts would drop the seeing could be quite good this evening.

Have to break off to make supper now - it's my turn !

 

[Mr Spock]

Nice report. Sadly for me Jupiter and Saturn are below the rooftops 😭

[John]

4 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Nice report. Sadly for me Jupiter and Saturn are below the rooftops 😭

Thanks Michael,

I'm only catching them in the gap between two large trees. I suspect I'm going to have to be more mobile when it gets to their closest approach later this month.

 

[Pixies]

I can only see them if I stand on a table (using binoculars). I have a new (to me) tripod, so I might end up on the table with the Skymax 90 during the next few weeks. 

If there's a clear night near the conjunction, I might try finding a high point to the west of Edinburgh. Hopefully the tier3 rules (Scottish) have been downgraded by then.

[Paul73]

Clouds here. 
Good to catch the two giants in one fov! Must have been quite a sight.

Paul

[Jasonb]

Nice report! I don't feel like I'm anywhere near experienced yet to be doing reports, but I also noticed the two planets low in the sky and decided to try to see them for my very first time.

Time was tight, between their height above the back garden wall and the fact that I was cooking dinner! So, ignoring all good practice, I literally only had time to take my 130P out the back and spend 5 minutes looking, no OTA cooling, I couldn't even turn off the kitchen light in the background! 

But I was able to get Saturn in view, with my current max 65x using the stock 10mm Eyepiece that came with the scope. When the image steadied it was small but I could definitely see the shape of the rings, at its worse it looked like a slightly unfocused disk bulging at the sides, and occasionally the shadows/darkness between the planet and the rings showed clearer and the shape was more obvious. 

Delighted with myself for seeing Saturn's Rings with my own eyes for the first time, I moved on to Jupiter. As John said, the four moons were all in a line to one side, bright pinpricks of light, and Jupiter itself surprised me with the size of its disk, even at 65x, and at times of clarity I felt like I could see some variations of shade/tone on it, though I was aware that might just be me mentally putting the images I've seen on top of what I was seeing.

Anyhow, I then had to go back before the Steak was a lost cause, but for all the poor conditions, I still saw two planets and four moons in the space of 5 minutes and at this stage of the hobby for me, that's a great night!

Sorry for hijacking your thread John!

[dweller25]

Quote

Had a look at Jupiter at 16:30 and for 2 seconds saw the GRS

[Paz]

Nice report, it sounds like a good idea to try and bag this event early in case it's clouded out when they are closest.

I had them in the same field of view a couple of weeks ago, but that was opportunistically with a monocular with a 7 degree fov when out for an evening walk.

[cloudsweeper]

Good stuff John!  I also got Jupiter (four moons one side), Saturn, and Mars.  Then on to some doubles.  Report to follow.

Doug.

[dweller25]

2 hours ago, John said:

First clear evening for quite a few days here. Cold and blowy though. The slim lines of my Takahashi FC100-DL are less bothered by the gusts than my other scopes.

I've had a quick look at Jupiter and Saturn before they drop behind the tree branches low towards the south west. These two are around 1.5 degrees apart now so I can fit them into the field of view with the 24mm Panoptic eyepiece. At 38x the image scale is small but exquisitely sharp. Jupiter's four Galilean moons are strung out like pearls all on the same side of the planet. A nice arrangement   A couple of equatorial bands are showing but not a lot else at this magnification and with the planet so low. Saturn and Titan shine on the other side of the field with the Cassini division quite clear.

Suddenly Jupiter shows some odd scintillation - horse chestnut branches are not a great filter !

Just in case I can't get a decent view when these planets are really close together in the sky later in the month, at least I've seen the pair sharing a telescope eyepiece this evening

 

Well John,

We both have some great scopes, but perhaps the question is.....

How much astronomy can you do with a 4” Frac ? 😁

[John]

1 hour ago, dweller25 said:

Well John,

We both have some great scopes, but perhaps the question is.....

How much astronomy can you do with a 4” Frac ? 😁

Well, the past few times I've observed, the "window of opportunity" has been short lived thanks to the UK weather. And so it was tonight with pretty solid cloud cover arriving about  half an hour after I observed Mars. If the scope had not been quick to set up and cool down (ie: a 4 inch frac) I don't think I would have done any practical astronomy at all recently. So currently, I'm very glad that I have such scopes

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by John

[JeremyS]

A couple of really compelling reports there @John!

Your love of the sky shines through!

Lovely!

Edited December 5, 2020 by JeremyS

[dweller25]

6 hours ago, John said:

Well, the past few times I've observed, the "window of opportunity" has been short lived thanks to the UK weather. And so it was tonight with pretty solid cloud cover arriving about  half an hour after I observed Mars. If the scope had not been quick to set up and cool down (ie: a 4 inch frac) I don't think I would have done any practical astronomy at all recently. So currently, I'm very glad that I have such scopes

 

Yes, I am also finding the quick setup and cool down of the 4” allows me to take advantage of good gaps in the weather that otherwise I would not have set up for 🙂

[Mr Spock]

11 hours ago, John said:

Well, the past few times I've observed, the "window of opportunity" has been short lived thanks to the UK weather. And so it was tonight with pretty solid cloud cover arriving about  half an hour after I observed Mars. If the scope had not been quick to set up and cool down (ie: a 4 inch frac) I don't think I would have done any practical astronomy at all recently. So currently, I'm very glad that I have such scopes

I'm thinking the same about my Celestron 80ED. Now I have an EQ5 arriving I can nip up to darkish skies and a clear horizon in about fifteen minutes. Hopefully the mount arrives before the main event. I do have a mini-porta mount but, it's like jelly with the 80mm on it.