Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

An unplanned early morning session 30/8/2022


Saganite

Recommended Posts

I could not resist the pull of Jupiter at 3.15 am this morning as I looked through the bedroom curtains.  I have enjoyed so many memorable outings with my APM ED 6" since the beginning of July, a really lovely scope, and this latest chance to observe Jupiter was impossible to resist.  This scope had given me an image of the giant planet, on August 7th/8th , as good as any I have ever seen, both with Andromeda and my OOVX12 Dob with its 12" 1/8th wave mirror.

On that occasion I had started observing at 4.15 am and continued into daybreak at about 5.30am. The creamy grey Jovian disc was dead sharp and there was detail of swirls and eddys in abundance, but the GRS  above all stood out , a deepish orange in colour, and with the dark banding in the belt arching around it like a raised eyebrow, the whole appearing as a  huge and baleful eye staring back at me.  The image seemed to me to be calm and still, as though etched into a black background, and remained , with slight atmospheric disturbances like that until daybreak.

This was what I anticipated this morning, but by 3.50am when the scope was assembled and cooled on the mount,it did not live up to expectation.  At 166x the disc was soft and had the blue and red fringes of atmospheric dispersion showing top and bottom, so I backed off to 90x to achieve sharpness.  At this mag, the disc showed pretty decent bands and with some detail, but of course the image scale was much less.  However, I was out observing yet again, so it was good.

By now, the great Constellation, our dear winter friend Orion was high enough in the East for me to split Rigel and Alnitak easily, but the Trapezium stars stubbornly stayed on four no matter what I tried. At that altitude I wasn't surprised, and that prize will  wait for another day.  Orion in all its glory will be the great feast of the winter season !

I finished the session with a star cluster tour of Auriga and Pleiades, and returned to my  bed.

Edited by Saganite
  • Like 11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got one of the best views of Jupiter last week really sublime, I was down stairs this morning at 3.20am in pain. I stepped outside just to sit in one of my highbacked garden chairs Orion was straight facing me Jupiter high and to the right Gemini to the left and the Hyades with A very Orange/Red Mars above Orion.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.