Jupiter + Uranus 12th Jun 3am

[teh_orph]

So I accidentally woke up at 3am this morning and realised that I couldn't sleep, it was clear outside and that it was a good chance to see Jupiter with my new telescope!

Living in London anyway makes for an unusually bright sky and observing in June made it even worse! But still I located Jupiter super easily with my Skywatcher 130P - even on the lowest mag setting all four moons (Io, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa) were bright specs of light. Zooming in on the body of Jupiter gave a very bright disc that made it hard to see detail, but I could certainly see a large major band across the centre. Stellarium tells me that the great red spot would have been in the centre, but I couldn't see it. There was a lot of heat haze.

Panning just down and to the side...Uranus! Only Neptune's left on the list now Tbh a bit boring to look at (a tiny coloured disc) but very cool nonetheless.

Ten mins later, a -7 Irridium flare goes past me

Not bad for waking up at a strange time...

[kidlands]

yeah I was out at that time too after getting home from a late night out. Couldnt see any planets from where I was but a nice satellite spotted right over head at around 3am.

Suprising how light it was at that time, hint of dawn light out east already.

steve

[Chris H]

Nice one, I couldn't sleep on Thursday night and had a look out the window at 3am and there was Jupiter about 30 degrees above the eastern horizon. Good too see it back in the sky again.

[Plantins]

It's great when you stumble across something for the 1st time. I remember mine 20+ years ago. It was Saturn with my 1st scope, never forgot it!

[teh_orph]

It was kinda cool really since I was getting a bit bored of seeing Saturn, plus it being overcast every single day. It's nice to get a bit of enthusiasm back!

I went to Canterbury over the weekend. It was very cool to see the night's sky sans light pollution! I'm moving house to a more light polluted area soon though...nuts!

[yeti monster]

Got out this moroning around 03:00 hrs o'clock. The sky was getting quite light again by then but I was pleased to be able to find Uranus by using my Telrad 4 degree circle, which put the faint dot into the FOV of the 40mm Omni. I pulled it in down to the 5mm Hyperion and it was still rather clear, although when I tried Barlowing I lost it.

I then turned my attention to Jupiter and the 4 moons, a splendid sight best viewed with my 8mm UWAn which retained the destinct band whilst holding the sight nicely in the FOV.

Then back to bed for a few more hours.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I also had a couple of 4am encounters with Jupiter this week but at 4am you dont really feel like setting up. Next morning again at 4am i grabbed the BIG bins and had a good view of Jupiter and its moons. Few more weeks and Jupiter will be visible for me at a respectable hour. Then i'll get the scope out.

[yeti monster]

Had some good views yeasterday morning, a shame the few folk still up to see Jupiter and Uranus, were too drunk to fully apprecieate the view. Still, I enjoyed the observing, and the scope with stood the abuse.

[John]

Nice views of Jupiter and Uranus this morning (3.30 am !) with my 6" F/8 refractor. Jupiter with a number of cloud bands but the SEB was so very faint - where has it gone ??? Great Red Spot not visable at the moment. NEB makes up for the lack of it's southern couterpart - very dark and well defined.

4 brightest Jovian moons set out in a lovely chain with Io on one side of the planet and Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, the other. At high power (342x) I could make out the relative size difference between the moons as they were seen as definate disks.

I then panned across and found the tiny, pale blue disk of Uranus. The disk is just 3.4 seconds of arc in apparent diameter but it was clearly planetary even at 170x. Nice to see Uranus again - I must find time to visit the Herschel museum in Bath this year as Uranus was discovered from the back garden of the house in New King Street by William Herschel in 1781.

All in all, well worth staying up for

[dark star]

I saw Jupiter this morning around 3.30 a.m., I haven't seen it this year yet, as there is no East view from my garden.

I was up all night, but the seeing seemed to be quite bad, I was just about to go to bed when I thought 'what is that really bright star', of course it was JupiterI

It has now moved it's position in the sky so that I can see it.

I rushed off to get my 150PL f/8 reflector from my (very small) shed, as this gives a better view of planets than the 120mm f/5 refractor I was using.

It was great to see Jupiter again, it was already getting light so I could only see one band, but I saw 3 moons (there should be 4 moons, maybe I didn't spot one that was to the other side of the planet?).

I think I saw Uranus before I got the telescope, although I wasn't sure if it was a star, but by the time I got the telescope it was too light to see it.

I hope to try to see it again next weekend, as I have never seen it through a telescope.

Seeing Jupiter again cheered me up after not much luck finding nebulas and globular clusters, as the sky was a rather murky/ hazy.

I went to bed happy!

[Nermal]

My new 6mm TMB should arrive today so first chance I get to be up early on a clear morning I'm going to hopefully see Jupiter for the first time

Really looking forward to it

[BazMark]

I left my gear (SW 127 mak) set up after a lunar session on Saturday and set the alarm for 3.30am for a session with Jupiter. I wasn't disappointed as even with an un-cooled scope (been in the kitchen) I could make out the main cloud band and three moons. As the scope cooled down though, I could eventually make out two other faint bands and a darker polar region and also much to my amazement the great spot. This was with a 16.8mm ortho barlowed 2x.

I didn't realize Uranus was nearby so I can see another session in the offing sometime this week.

[BazMark]

also much to my amazement the great spot.

Just checked Stelarium for Sunday morning and the GRS wasn't presenting so it wasn't that I was looking at after all. There doesn't appear to have been a transition in progress either. There does however, seem to be another storm type mass in one of the other cloud belts that is positioned right where I could see 'the spot' so I think it may have been that I was seeing but I have my doubts.

Any other suggestions as to what I was seeing?

[DobbyX]

I only just woke up an hour ago after staying up to see Jupiter and Uranus on my 6" SCT. Saw all four moons, one of which was very close to the disc of Jupiter, checked Stellarium and it turned out to be Ganymede. Saw the main cloud band but not the spot, was quite misty where I was looking from.

I also saw Uranus, looked like a small, dim blue disc that looked quite obviously not a star. Morning made good use of my new 7mm TS Planetary. I never realised that Jupiter would fill up quite a sizable proportion of the view at high power.

[John]

Just checked Stelarium for Sunday morning and the GRS wasn't presenting so it wasn't that I was looking at after all. There doesn't appear to have been a transition in progress either. There does however, seem to be another storm type mass in one of the other cloud belts that is positioned right where I could see 'the spot' so I think it may have been that I was seeing but I have my doubts.

Any other suggestions as to what I was seeing?

In previous years when I have observed Jupiter, the GRS has been rather pale and did not stand out much at all. Last time around, while the spot itself was not very exciting, the hollow it sits in within the SEB was interesting as it had developed darker areas around it's leading edge. Like all planetary details, the more you study Jupiter, the more you will see. By the end of last years encounter I was picking out good detail on most nights even with my 4" refractor.

There are other storms, festoons and other features on the planet and, as the dramatic fading of the SEB proves, it's a pretty dynamic place so you never quite know what might appear - thats the really nice thing about Jupiter

[BazMark]

Thanks for your thoughts John.

I was hoping for a peak at Uranus this morning and another look at Jupiter as according to Stelarium the GRS should have been presenting this morning, but alas thick cloud so will have to be patient.