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At Last !! just when i was getting fed up

tinvek

By tinvek
in Observing - Planetary

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tinvek

tinvek

Posted
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since i restarted my interest in astronomy, i've been waiting for jupiter to become more favourable but over the last few months the gods of work and cloud haven't been cooperating and so clear nights have been when i was in work (night shift)and the cloudy nights when i was off work.

last night was the first of 5 off in a row and looked like being the same with the added sadism of having clear skies till 8.30 pm ish and then a cloud bank rolling in. went out to a friend's and when i came back there wasn't a glimmer of light in the sky. :)

decided to have a bite to eat and then bed, got watching a couple of progs recorded on sky+ and so eventually went upstairs, looked through the bathroom window as i put my clothes in laundry basket and the moon was litterally appearing from the cloud bank with stars visable to the west. watched and waited and yes the clouds were definatly moving to the east so got dressed again, shot down stairs grabbed the c80ed on the AZ3 mount, new 2" diagonal thats hardly seen any use yet and the televue 9mm. trod on one of the cats, poked my self in the eye with the finderscope whilst unlocking the door and went outside, standing in the dogs water bowl on the way through the back porch (did i mention i was wearing slippers ?)

up the garden, didn't fall in fish pond and set scope up, waited a minute and there it was, shining bright as it appeared from behind the cloud, funny how eyes play tricks, you'd swear it was moving faster than the stars as the cloud disappeared and now its almost as if changed direction, oh hang on its a helicopter :headbang:

waited, 5 minuted passed, then another 5, then nothing happened before 10 passed by quickly whilst i wasn't looking before it appeared. yes this time is definatly the one, even with the stock 25mm eyepiece i can see 4 moons nice and bright, change to the televue and its just out of view dissaperaing as i focus the blur to a point, adjust the slow mo control and it dissappears ! what? why? oh hang on its the new diagonal, not the old erecting prism, go the other way and there it is 4 moons, nice bright sharp image banding on view:hello2::icon_salut:, made all the waiting, wet foot, watering eye worth it :D:D:D:D .

stood there making suitable sounds of appreciation for 30 mins or so humming holst to my self before packing everything up, turning round and standing with the dry slipper in the biggest dog [removed word] i've ever seen :cool:

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tinvek

tinvek

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yes saw banding, was amazed how bright it was, far brighter than i remember from 30 years ago though no doubt the new diagonal helps with that, looks like i'm going to have to get some filters :icon_salut:

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arad85

arad85

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Nice report :icon_salut: I'm really looking forward to seeing Jupiter for the first time - but I'm not quite so dedicated to be up that early (or is it late). Going to have to wait until later in the year for that.

Also good to see that someone else is blessed with the "what can go wrong will..." gene

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Vega

Vega

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Great report and quite amusing lol. I salute you for getting up in the wee hours to view the King of the planets. Im a total lightweight and will probably wait until the end of July for an easy evening view

Matt

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Albireo380

Albireo380

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Glad to read your report. Sighting Jupiter is alweays one of these "WOW" moments in Astronomy. Pity about the Dog [removed word] though - still, it could have been worse, you could have been observing from Africa and it was Elephant Poo - you might have been up to your knees in it :)

Tom

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