Jupiter and an awful ISS

[Kon]

I tried some imaging this morning but seeing was awful with clouds coming through constantly. The proof is my awful ISS at similar position as Saturn; no wonder that Saturn is hardly giving any details at 25 degrees. Jupiter faired better. I love seeing the GRS there. 8" Dob, asi462mc, uv/ir cut (ISS with IR pass).

  

[PeterStudz]

I thought of getting up early for visual but the threat of clouds and the jetstream being right overhead and at full bore made me decide to stay in bed. However, I know that it’s good to get the practice in and a night out is rarely a waste. I’ve never tried taking “proper” shots of the planets or the ISS (haven’t got the gear) but if I’d taken those I’d be well pleased.

Out of interest. The forecast is for the jetstream to get well out of the way in  about a week (maybe less), so hopefully an improvement soon.

[Kon]

39 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

I thought of getting up early for visual but the threat of clouds and the jetstream being right overhead and at full bore made me decide to stay in bed. However, I know that it’s good to get the practice in and a night out is rarely a waste. I’ve never tried taking “proper” shots of the planets or the ISS (haven’t got the gear) but if I’d taken those I’d be well pleased.

Out of interest. The forecast is for the jetstream to get well out of the way in  about a week (maybe less), so hopefully an improvement soon.

Thanks Peter. Jetstream prediction was 'red hot' over my area this morning. It was more the case of getting my settings right for ISS. We are supposed to have some nice fly overs the next few weeks so better waste time on the bad seeing.

Visually I could hardly make any bands on Jupiter. Saturn looked ok and just a hint of cassini division.

[PeterStudz]

It reminds me of something that happened at about this time last year. I can’t remember if the jetstream was about but I’d been looking at Jupiter & Saturn with my daughter.
 

The views weren’t great and my daughter had gone to bed. At that time my DIY Dob base was only part done, still bare wood, and I decided to use the time to fiddle with any stiction, try to improve the movement at high magnification. So I upped the magnification to x300 and looked at Jupiter. The GRS was there but not surprisingly the whole planet was a blurry mess. Suddenly, as I was nudging the Dob, Jupiter snapped into view. Then went to a blur again. It did this many times for a period of about 10-12mins, each clear view lasting 2-3 seconds. But in those brief periods I could make out swirls and details around the GRS. It’s was the best view I got of Jupiter all last year. If I hadn’t upped the magnification, or gone in for a coffee etc I would have missed/not noticed the whole thing.

After that period I continued viewing until the sun came up hoping I’d see similar again. But I didn’t, just the blurred views I was getting before. 

 

[Kon]

12 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

It reminds me of something that happened at about this time last year. I can’t remember if the jetstream was about but I’d been looking at Jupiter & Saturn with my daughter.
 

The views weren’t great and my daughter had gone to bed. At that time my DIY Dob base was only part done, still bare wood, and I decided to use the time to fiddle with any stiction, try to improve the movement at high magnification. So I upped the magnification to x300 and looked at Jupiter. The GRS was there but not surprisingly the whole planet was a blurry mess. Suddenly, as I was nudging the Dob, Jupiter snapped into view. Then went to a blur again. It did this many times for a period of about 10-12mins, each clear view lasting 2-3 seconds. But in those brief periods I could make out swirls and details around the GRS. It’s was the best view I got of Jupiter all last year. If I hadn’t upped the magnification, or gone in for a coffee etc I would have missed/not noticed the whole thing.

After that period I continued viewing until the sun came up hoping I’d see similar again. But I didn’t, just the blurred views I was getting before. 

 

We seem to be getting these very brief moments as if there is a gap in the Jetstream. I could see the milky Way this morning, so transparency was not bad. I noticed that when my seeing is bad both Jupiter and Saturn have a deep yellow hue when looked without any aid, maybe a sign of bad seeing.

[morimarty]

Well done Kon for getting out there and homing your skills capturing Jupiter & Iss. Having seen the image of the Iss you posted a few weeks back which I would say is the best I've seen on this forum it is also good to post the less pleasing ones just to show how difficult it really is imaging in the UK conditions.

[Kon]

19 minutes ago, morimarty said:

Well done Kon for getting out there and homing your skills capturing Jupiter & Iss. Having seen the image of the Iss you posted a few weeks back which I would say is the best I've seen on this forum it is also good to post the less pleasing ones just to show how difficult it really is imaging in the UK conditions.

Thanks Martyn. This ISS capture is a testimony of how bad seeing is at that low elevation. I hope for a good capture tomorrow morning at 67 degrees.

[neil phillips]

Totally agree with Martyn. its much more interesting seeing the transition. Rather than just posting the best. Ive tried to do that for many years starting often with a blurry early shot. The journey is more informative in so many ways. And gives us a comparison when some one is doing well. Other wise its not easy to tell if a capture is ordinary for that person or not ? Its more out of context. 

Well done for the hard work put in. It will in time pay dividends