Jupiter

[CKP_82]

I know it's a full moon, but it's also very clear outside. I dusted off my little heritage 130p which hasn't been out for what seems like an eternity! 

Jupiter was conveniently positioned above my neighbours house with the moon still below it and out of sight.

I decided I was going to observe Jupiter and only Jupiter to see if I could get my eyes readjusted to looking through a telescope again.

My scope was cooled and my eyes had adapted to the night sky so I popped in the standard 25mm eyepiece. I could see Jupiter as a white disc and one of its moons far over to the left. I couldn't pull any other details with this eyepiece so I changed to an 8mm bst. This time I caught sight of another moon to the right hand side but still Jupiter seemed like a white disc. At this point I thought the moon had completely washed out any surface details. Lastly I put the 8mm into a 2x Barlow and instantly saw a third moon just to the left hand side. A few minutes later I managed to see Jupiters band and then finally the fourth moon sitting happily in the middle of it. I then realised that was my limit as the full moon was creeping above the my neighbours roof.

Hopefully without the brightness of the moon I can pull out a bit more of Jupiters finer details.

[John]

Nice report !

The moons brightness should not affect the detail on Jupiter much. Dark adaptation can actually be a disadvantage for this. The longer you observe Jupiter, the more your eye will adapt and the cloud belt detail will emerge

I'm waiting for Jupiter to clear the surrounding houses but the clouds might get to me first !

 

[CKP_82]

Thanks @John I guess the more time I'm at the telescope, the better my eyes will become at seeing the finer details.