First time with the gas giants!

[Kon]

After an excellent session looking at nebulas on the Milky Way, I took a quick nap between 2am-3am. I had never seen Jupiter or Neptune with a telescope so I was for yet another treat. Another OMG moment. At 330am Saturn was there with the rings and grey banding! It was the most amazing thing in front of my eyes! I spotted two moons but I think I was too excited to take careful note of their relative position. I then went for Jupiter. Amazing! I could see orange band colours and the 5 moons. What a sight! I went to wake up my wife and 6 year old son at 4am to show them. Luckily neither of them was grumpy at me but really happy. The overall seeing was not too bad.

I agree with others that when you first see these two giants it is a memorable moment. I also took a few shots with my DSLR at the EP. Not the best but I love them.

 

[Nik271]

Congratulations on your first views of Jupiter and Saturn, they are unforgettable aren't they!

I was up at 5:30am today and had a look at Jupiter. The colours were washed out but at least the north equatorial band was visible.

Did you see the great red spot? It is supposed to be visible from 4pm to  7am but there was too much daylight and I couldn't see it. Have to get up earlier... 

 

[Kon]

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

Did you see the great red spot? It is supposed to be visible from 4pm to  7am but there was too much daylight and I couldn't see it. Have to get up earlier...

At around 430 the bands were clearly visible and the spot as well. It looked better on my 8mm EP and it did not barlow very well (I think still too low?).

[Nik271]

I should try to get up around 4am for a good view then. After 5am there is too much light in the sky and Jupiter demands good contrast.

Last year it never got above 15 degrees in altitude, and the views were poor. This year should be much better hopefully!

[Tiny Clanger]

Exciting isn't it ? 🙂  Saturn was the first thing I saw through my heritage dob, on the day I bought it, and even through a window , with the stock eyepieces , dob balanced precariously on it's own cardboard box , it was a memorable sight !

Last night I was out with my heritage dob around 1am, but while the seeing was steady, the poor clarity and light pollution frustrated my DSO hunting 😞 but as I packed up at  3am I saw Jupiter and Saturn were just climbing over the houses , too low for my dob (the fence was in the way ) so nipped in to grab my ST80 on its nice tall  tripod, and see how it coped : surprisingly well ! I've seen both planets in my dob and mak last year, this was my first look with the tiny frac, I didn't expect much but it was actually a quite nice view , cranking up the ST80 with a 6mm ortho to a not-at -all massive 66X mag. , some colour banding , sharp tiny rings, all 4 Galilean Moons ...

That right hand 5th moon you and I saw was a star which just happened to be in line with the moons  (HP 109720) , having counted 5 points of light myself, I checked with stellarium when I came indoors, the line E to W went Io, Jupiter, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, star .

Heather

[Kon]

2 hours ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Exciting isn't it ? 🙂  Saturn was the first thing I saw through my heritage dob, on the day I bought it, and even through a window , with the stock eyepieces , dob balanced precariously on it's own cardboard box , it was a memorable sight !

I got my Dob back in December and I have patiently waited for them to rise. If the weather holds this week, I may have a few early wake ups before work 🪐. I agree the sight and feeling is amazing. My son was talking about it today.

 

2 hours ago, Tiny Clanger said:

That right hand 5th moon you and I saw was a star which just happened to be in line with the moons  (HP 109720) , having counted 5 points of light myself, I checked with stellarium when I came indoors, the line E to W went Io, Jupiter, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, star .

Thanks for the pointer! I was probably too excited to think through that the 5th moon was a star. Ooops!

 

It sounds you had a frustrating evening with DSOs. At least you saw the giants!

Edited May 30, 2021 by Kon

[Tiny Clanger]

16 minutes ago, Kon said:

I got my Dob back in December and I have patiently waited for them to rise. If the weather holds this week, I may have a few early wake ups before work 🪐. I agree the sight and feeling is amazing. My son was talking about it today.

Thanks for the pointer! I was probably too excited to think through that the 5th moon was a star. Ooops!

It sounds you had a frustrating evening with DSOs. At least you saw the giants!

Patience is essential ! 🙂

I've had plenty of frustrating viewing sessions, and early on got in the habit of finishing such a session with an easy win to make up for the (many) annoying failures: it used to be the Pleiades back in the winter, and maybe the Orion Nebula, now it is Albireo and the Ring Nebula , Saturn and Jupiter were an unanticipated but very welcome extra .

With a bit of luck, I might get to see the planets in my mak at a rather higher magnification this week , the highest the ST80 could manage with my 6mm eyepiece is about the same as the 25mm BST shows in the mak ! Probably with both planets still very low in the sky conditions will not be ideal for huge magnification, but you never know ...

[SuburbanMak]

3 hours ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Patience is essential ! 🙂

I've had plenty of frustrating viewing sessions, and early on got in the habit of finishing such a session with an easy win to make up for the (many) annoying failures: it used to be the Pleiades back in the winter, and maybe the Orion Nebula, now it is Albireo and the Ring Nebula , Saturn and Jupiter were an unanticipated but very welcome extra .

With a bit of luck, I might get to see the planets in my mak at a rather higher magnification this week , the highest the ST80 could manage with my 6mm eyepiece is about the same as the 25mm BST shows in the mak ! Probably with both planets still very low in the sky conditions will not be ideal for huge magnification, but you never know ...

Completely agree with the “highlights sweep” to end a session - like you in winter this was the Pleiades & for me the Double Cluster, the Beehive sneaked in there too.  Right now it’s been the Ring Nebula, M13 and Albireo . 

Tales of gas giants may inspire me to stay up very late tonight…

[Nik271]

10 hours ago, SuburbanMak said:

Completely agree with the “highlights sweep” to end a session - like you in winter this was the Pleiades & for me the Double Cluster, the Beehive sneaked in there too.  Right now it’s been the Ring Nebula, M13 and Albireo . 

Tales of gas giants may inspire me to stay up very late tonight…

It's better to go to sleep early and wake up very early, I recommend 3:30am. Had a nice view this morning at 4am, definitely worth getting up for.

[SuburbanMak]

49 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

It's better to go to sleep early and wake up very early, I recommend 3:30am. Had a nice view this morning at 4am, definitely worth getting up for.

Thanks Nik & glad you got some good views. 

I busied myself with some Messier action earlier (M27, M57, M13, M56, M29, M39, M14, M24, M23) and then got some lovely views of Saturn with I think 2 moons above and Jupiter showing nice banding and 4 moons spread out to the Eastward side. Seeing was quite variable as looking across lots of rooftops but stunning nevertheless. 

Snoozing on a sun lounger beckons… 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

A memory you will treasure. Well done. 😀