Jupiter- 1st light with Denk II's

[mike bacanin]

Well, after a long period of poor weather i finally managed 1st light on jupiter this morning with my new Denk II's between 01-00 and 02-30 GMT.

using x122 and x162 and x216,in very rare moments of good seeing, the NEB was distinctly darker than the SEB and very ragged.

The SEB was clearly split into 2 components with the very pale GRS and clearly defined hollow.

The NTB and STB were easily seen, and the S Polar region darker than the North.

irregularity in the belts were very noticeable in those very short steady moments,

seeing was very poor most of the time,jupiter looking like it was under a flowing river, and eventually a cool air front was felt which really affected the seeing for the worse.

i was amazed at how big jupiter looked at the lowest 1.4x powerswitch setting!

it was obvious had the seeing been steady there was very impressive belt detail.

the best views were with the zeiss 16mm jena pair, with very minimal scatter.

a short session on the moon showed to me a better light reflection control in the Denk II's than the std Denks.

Mike

[Izar]

Mike - I too was observing Jupiter over the same time period, and your description perfectly matches up with what I observed.

I had two scopes on the go, and used 90x - 133x, a real pity about the seeing.

[mike bacanin]

Thanks Izar for your comments. It was not a night to crank up the power!

Mike

[JAO]

Mike

An excellent descriptive report of what I was seeing on Jupiter this AM. I found I was getting the best sustained view at 187X in my 10" Mak Cass. I have to say in spite of less than good seeing the detail in moments of clarity was spectacular. I am keen to look at a decent Binoviwewr after diasppointing views with a cheapie model. Your comments about the Denk II's are very interesting and I am giving these serious consideration when finances permit.

Thanks for sharing you observation

Adrian

[mike bacanin]

Hi Adrian,

Thanks for your comments.

What is the cooldown time with your mak?,its a substantial corrector plate!

I have owned the std denks, but i do feel the II's control stray reflections better. They also have 1/8 wave prisms and dielectric coatings rather than 1/4 wave and mgf on the std's.

the background of jupiter was very dark with very little scatter.

Mike

[JAO]

Hi Mike

Big maks are notorious for temperature problems as you probably know. I have my 10" f12.5 Mak in a relativelly cool domed observatory and have a fan running next to the scope for at least 40 mins (but idealy about 2 hours at this time of year) before I use the scope. In addition the scope itself has a lateral fan drawing air across the mirror. I run this for a similar length of time.

Whilst these scopes do need some careful handling their performace is well worth the effort. I learned a lot of cooling tricks on my little but excellent 7" Mirage STF grab and go Mak.

On the best nights when the optics are cool the 10"s performance can come close to my 18" Dob. The optics are very contrasty and well corrected.

I have owned a lot of scopes and was introduced to maks by my good freind Andrew Roberston a few years ago, since then I have become somewhat of a mak fanatic!!

I think I need to look into a a set of denks to partner my mighty Intes Mak!

Regards

Adrian