GRS & Europa Shadow transit - 14th Nov 2023

[Stu]

I probably wouldn’t have bothered going out tonight if it hadn’t been for this post from @dweller25

with the addition of @globular’s note about GRS. Thanks chaps 👍

I popped the scope out at about 5.30pm and got my first, pretty rubbish view of Jupiter, just two bands visible, no detail at all. Out again at about 6.15 after dinner and things had improved quite a bit. I wondered whether I would be able to see the shadow of Europa, but there it was, quite clear despite still poor seeing. GRS was visible, but really not very distinct; the shadow was nearby and really put it, well in the shade as it were 🤪. Plenty of other detail including the dark band streaming off the bottom of GRS, but the separation between it and the SEB eluded me, unlike last night when it was very clear. Some darker barge like marking on the lower edge of the NEB, plus the white feature which I’ve been seeing for a while, though again, not as distinct as last night.

At 18.38 I first consciously noticed Europa as it neared the darkened limb, appearing as a bright spot. I followed it for about fifteen minutes as it enlarged into a pimple off the side of Jupiter, then had just about separated by the time I had to come in.

The seeing was fairly variable through out, with patchy cloud passing through, but it was reasonable in the clear spells.

I’ll pop back out later to try to catch the moon alignment and report back, perhaps with a dodgy iPhone image 🤪

One more item of note. Even with binoviewers, I still do see floaters, and they are particularly annoying with planets as they are small targets and my floaters are fairly central. I’ve noted for a while, that looking up for ten seconds or so can make them go away for a minute or two, so decided to try observing from the side, looking slightly up into the binoviewers. I find this very disorientating in terms of orientation of the planet, plus the location of the focuser and Slo Mo controls and also their effect. BUT, by Jupiter it works! No floaters visible at all, so it is well worth persevering with I think. Give it a go if this is something which affects your observing and let me know how you get on 👍

 

[Stu]

Success! The cloud stayed away, and the seeing remained good enough. I got some decent views through the binoviewers, then popped in the Leica zoom and took a few pics and a short video clip with my phone. Turned out the video clip gave the best results as posted here which are individual frames processed in PS Express.

[dweller25]

Glad you caught it @Stu, cloudy for me but I like your images 👍