Jupiter and Saturn

[yuklop]

Finally a wonderful nights observing.

Didn't start that way, as with the good news that COVID is in decline has meant a rise in aircraft. So my skies looked like this at the start of the evening, and the moon reflecting of those con-trails meant I was in a poor mood. See image below. I like the geese though, who photobombed my image of con-trails. In fact I was so grumpy I very almost didn't bother getting the scope out, and was going to post a rant on con-trails instead. Glad I did though as eventually those trails melted away and I got some excellent views of Jupiter and Saturn. I was using a Meade LX200 Classic 12''. Recently got the collimation really sorted by following this advice: Collimation of an SCT from scratch, a photo guide - Major & Minor Planetary Imaging - Cloudy Nights. Previously collimated to get a centred ring in the donut, but this time focussed it down to get better and better. It worked too, as the good collimation, coupled with the really still atmosphere last night gave the best vies of Jupiter and Saturn I have ever had. I managed to get the power up to 435x, with the 7mm eyepiece. I have only every managed to get down to the 12mm previously, before the view washed away to blur. Cassini division was easy. Jupiter was superb, watching Callisto emerge from behind the planet around 22:00.

 

I am very poor at processing planetary images, mostly because I have rarely had data worth processing, but I gave these a go. Attached here, is a Jupiter and a composite of Saturn and its moons. Obviously, the moons were taken at a very different exposure to the planet and the images combined later.

I hope many of you also got great views of the two heavy weights.