2hr obs Jupiter and the Galilean moons

[Rhye]

It's my first go at recording my obs., but it does give the newcomer (i.e someone with a humble scope like mine) a reasonably good idea of what they might expect to see.

Obs were made from N51 W3, Newport in Wales, with a Skywatcher 130 on a partially broken eq2 mount that I had to delicately manhandle about the place . For some reason my Barlow was no help with anything so obs were made with a 25mm for finding and a 10mm for the nitty gritty. I've attached my Jupiter notes. Apologies in advance for their shortcomings. Frustrated with the last observation- even though the sketch is reasonable in it's representation, the sense of closeness between Callisto and Europa is not something I could communicate. You'd need to see it, I guess.

Light pollution was an absolute disgrace, none of the stars of the Capricorn Teapot were visible with the naked eye, but readily found through binos. The moon was astonishing- when isn't it?, the upper-middle triplet of craters (Ptolomaeus and c.) were very well presented, especially as their position on the terminator meant that their appearance was changed dramatically in only a couple of hours. (Is that libration?)

The dew last night was a nonsense, my notepaper was limp at the end and the ink starting to blur.

2609Jove.tif

[crovax]

Judging from your picture Jupiter looks quite nice and the size is fine. Most likely the Barlow didn't help because the turbulence was bad. In such cases big magnification usually gives a disgusting smudge instead of Jupiter

However you should definitely try 10mm+Barlow again. Jupiter is an mazing target for large magnifications. I've been observing it with 4mm and 6.5mm+Barlow and it is totally worth it. On 6.5mm+Barlow I even started seeing features in the bands (instead of seeing them as lines).

[cosmic dave]

It just takes time with Jupiter the more you look the more you will see (conditions permitting) I use a skywatcher evostar 90 refractor on an EQ2 mount with a 6mm tmb planetary eyepiece and can see much fine detail from my dark sky position. I also find colour filters a great help. The best advice I have been given re Jupiter observing is take your time, and keep looking.

All the best

David

[Talitha]

Thanks Rhye, it's great to see the movement of the moons over a period of time.. makes the Universe seem more 'alive', you know?

Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel aren't close enough to the limb to have been affected by libration in the timeframe of your session. What you saw was the normal progression of the terminator, which scoots along at a relatively quick 1/2 degree an hour at the lunar equator. Very often, you can see the shadowline change noticeably within 10 or 15 minutes. Yeah, it's that quick.