Jupiter, 3/01/10

[Retrodan16]

I managed to get to have a look at Jupiter earlier this evening before it sank out of the sky, and as it was my first look at it through the telescope I thought I'd write about what I saw.

I was hugely impressed with the sight, I could clearly see 3 moons. Jupiter itself was a sharp bright disc, bulging slightly across the middle and just below the centre I could make out a darker band of cloud, a very faint brown against the pale yellow planet. I didn't expect to see as much as that, and although only small in the eyepiece, it still was very impressive, and the image was very sharp and well defined. It moved across the view a little slower than I expected, although I was looking at it at a fairly low power. I tried higher power, but it was a little too dim to make much detail out.

I spent a good 45 minutes trying out different eyepieces and the like until it was falling too low to give a useful view. For my first view however, I'm very happy, to see a band of cloud and such a sharp disc was more than I expected. I'm going to start making some sketches and notes about what I've seen as tonight was totally fascinating! I think I'm hooked!

[John]

Congratulations !

Your 6" F/8 scope is an excellent planetary scope - just wait until you see Saturn through it !.

[Retrodan16]

Congratulations !

Your 6" F/8 scope is an excellent planetary scope - just wait until you see Saturn through it !.

Really looking forward to that! I just need to work out what eyepieces would suit me best, at the moment I'm just using the supplied 10 and 25mm pieces, both of which seem to have their pro's and cons. Nevertheless, since I've only used the telescope 2 or 3 times, already I've seen some great stuff and I'm really pleased with the scope I chose.

[Spaced Cadet]

I was hugely impressed with the sight, I could clearly see 3 moons. Jupiter itself was a sharp bright disc, bulging slightly across the middle and just below the centre I could make out a darker band of cloud, a very faint brown against the pale yellow planet. I didn't expect to see as much as that, and although only small in the eyepiece, it still was very impressive, and the image was very sharp and well defined. It moved across the view a little slower than I expected, although I was looking at it at a fairly low power. I tried higher power, but it was a little too dim to make much detail out.

Usually, you would see a little more than that, but recently, the South Equatorial Belt has faded, leaving only the North Equatorial Belt visible at low magnification, which is what you saw.