Celestron Nexstar 6se & Jupiter

[milan]

shamefully my telescope has sat relatively unused for quite a while now but with the evenings starting to draw in now seems like a good time to get going again.

i havent looked at jupiter in quite a while but when i last did i couldnt see any of the lines across it etc, with good seeing could i hope to see some definition of the colours/lines etc?

skies look like they should be clear tonite over london so planning to get out there

[arad85]

You should be able to see at least the north and south equatorial bands. I can see 4 darker bands in my C9.25. The sacle of the planet will depend on your eyepiece you use. Which eyepieces do you have?

[milan]

thanks

i just have the eyepiece it came with (25mm) and the 2x barlow

[arad85]

Use the 2x barlow and you'll get 120x - should be enough to get you to see the bands and the 4 moons.

[arad85]

Oh, by the way, two moons of Jupiter will be transiting tonight and they will cast a shadow on the planet. From about midnight to 2amish....

[milan]

ooh thanks

ill give it a go, i used a small canon handheld camera and managed to take some shots of jupiter just with the camera held to the eyepiece and amazingly the photo picked up the moons, i just cant remember that we could actually see them through the eyepiece. that was probably around september october last year

midnight - 2am..... ill be asleep at my desk tomorrow LOL

saw 3 satellites last night and with some help managed to work out the heavens above website, forgotten the name of the one i saw already now though! LOL

[chrisdg1968]

Hi,

I was having a look at Jupiter last night with my C6-S on CG5 (virtually identical to the 6se); it was quite low over my garage roof but in moments of good seeing (I stress, only in moments!) I could make out the two bands on the disk, and four of the moons could be seen clearly, using e/p's including the originally bundled 25mm.

Only later did I notice that a spider had made it's web across the front of my dewshield so possibly could have had an even clearer view!

If you are observing tonight with your 6SE I would guess you should at least see the two equitorial bands on the disk of Jupiter.

Chris

[John]

With the planets you will see more detail the longer you study them. The details are very subtle and don't "jump out" at your 1st view. Repeated viewing brings out more details - it's almost as if you "train" your eye to detect the details over time.

On a good night I've been suprised at the amount of planetary details that my 4" refractor will show eg: on Jupiter, multiple cloud bands, uneven contrast in the equatorial belts, the great red spot and it's hollow, moon shadows etc, etc. But these details only emerge after time spent viewing - so don't be dismayed if at 1st you don't see all it has to offer !.

John

[Doc]

I couldn't agree more with John. Observe for at least 20 minutes and details like cloud bands and equitorial belts will appear you might even catch a transit.

It's amazing how one second your image is poor and then all of suddenly it appears perfect for a few seconds then dissappears.

[milan]

thanks so much everyone

i did go outside last night..... we carried the scope out and the power tank, connected them and nothing - the tank was empty! after all that...... so stupid of us not to check! anyway its on charge as i type and the weather forecast looked like it should still be clear tonight so with any luck ill be out later today

did manage to see a number of satellites last night and 2 comets

one thing which puzzled us, was just below cassiopea coming in from the north going under it was what started as a dim light then it went REALLY bright, so bright we thought it must have been a plane and it had changed direction to come towards us, next thing though the bright light went and it became a pin dot in the sky just like all the other sattelites had been. all the while the light moved in a steady direction going under cassiopea quite close to the horizon.... anyone got any ideas?

[resonator77]

Milan,

I do apologize for irrelevant to your post question, but have you have any problems with SkyAlign of your 6SE Nexstar.

I still can not align it using 3 stars.... ;-(

[arad85]

Milan,

I do apologize for irrelevant to your post question, but have you have any problems with SkyAlign of your 6SE Nexstar.

I still can not align it using 3 stars.... ;-(

I never had a problem with alignment on my 6SE. You need to make doubly sure you have set the correct location correctly and have the lat/long correct. You also need to make sure you have the correct timezone, time, daylight saving etc and that you enter the date in US (mm/dd/yy) format.

[resonator77]

Arad 85,

I tried to fiddle with date and time zone settings and it seems to be ok. Could you advice what time zone should I set for London UK? maybe I am doing it all wrong:icon_confused:

Thank you

[arad85]

Universal Time with Daylight Savings on... Make SURE you have correct Lat/Long. In fact post them here and lets have a look where you live!!

[resonator77]

Arad 85

it is Essex, Barking.

Have you used celestron SE series?

would be grateful if you could guide me as to what to input.

Many Thanks

[Astro Adj]

Could the bright flash have been an Iridium Flare? I only found out about these yesterday and have been intrigued ever since! I'm probably completely wrong though...

[milan]

Milan,

I do apologize for irrelevant to your post question, but have you have any problems with SkyAlign of your 6SE Nexstar.

I still can not align it using 3 stars.... ;-(

only ever had one problem and it was user error sadly one leg of our tripod is longer than the others so that the mount is level (which can be checked using the little bubble that comes with the scope) took it out and forgot about the 'long leg' - boy was i in a grump that night! and once the hubby and i worked it out we felt so stupid! lol

other than that its always been fine - but yes need to check your settings (time zone, date format etc)

[milan]

Could the bright flash have been an Iridium Flare? I only found out about these yesterday and have been intrigued ever since! I'm probably completely wrong though...

um, what is an iridium flare?!

(off to google!)

[milan]

ok googled it and from the descriptions and videos its definitely looks like an iridium flare, ive checked heavens above and there was one at exactly the right time and location but for 24 hours earlier.....

[arad85]

Arad 85

it is Essex, Barking.

Have you used celestron SE series?

would be grateful if you could guide me as to what to input.

Many Thanks

Yup.. had a 6SE for a few months...

Latitude: 51 deg 30min 18 sec North,

Longitude: 0 deg, 0 min 5 sec East

Time: Local time

Time Zone: Universal

Daylight: Yes

Tell me what you have for Lat/long in your setup....

[resonator77]

Arad85

thank you mate for your tips and advice.

was able to see Jupiter yesterday. Could Align in one go.

very happy with the scope:hello2:

is there any filters I can use to see gas storms on Jupiter?

Also Arad85, see you are not a novice in this business, any advice as to when is the best time to see Mercury and Venus?

[arad85]

Also Arad85, see you are not a novice in this business

Oh yes I am!!

any advice as to when is the best time to see Mercury and Venus?

Dusk/dawn. As these two planets are close to the sun, you only ever get to see them when the sun is just below the horizon. Not sure how easy Mercury is to see either.... If you want to see rise/set times for planets, set yourself up a login on heavens above (Heavens-Above Home Page) and put your lat/long in there. It also tells you which satellites are visible too...

[Tiny]

Using a 6se I found a variable polorising filter helped reduce glare when looking at Jupiter and it brought out the bands and top and bottom features better. Having said that Jupiter is so low that the seeing is not that great even though we have dark skies.

In fact for comparison I got out a 70mm Televue Ranger - which is a really a lightweight spotting scope but with very good colour correction and the same optics as the Pronto and gives excellent viewing. That - working at the same power as the 6se - gave the same image but with no glare.

If Jupiter were higher in the sky I would expect the 6se to beat the 70mm hand down but with Jupiter so low. Even so the moon transits are fascinating.

[milan]

thanks tiny

i looked last night and saw jupiter plus 4 moons :-)

could see the bands but i think i would have been hard pushed to make out the giant spot.

it was incredibly bright and i did wonder whether something to help dim it down slightly might have given a better view??

then before i knew it the clouds were rolling in :-(

[Tiny]

If you go to the SKY & TELESCOPE site they have lots of useful toys. One gives times for seeing the red spot and another shows the 4 moons at any time.