Jupiter 24th August 2010

[russ]

Had a very good session with Jupiter this morning. Thought i would pop out at 12.30am, have a quick 30mins with it. But i fell asleep watching tv and woke at 1am. Looked out, crystal clear. So out i went.

All the scopes were already setup. Harry and I had been doing a moon watch earlier the previous evening. So had the 12" Revelation and 6" f5 Orion Optics. Plus i also had Shane's Orion Optics OD150 F11 to use. Really keen to see how that performed.

Turned the F11 on Jupiter and could straight away see this was going to be a good session. Jupiter was quite steady and already looking good with Shane's 20mm Plossl. Put in the TV 15mm Plossl for 110x......wow that is really nice. Contrast is awesome and the view razor sharp. Only 1/4 wave optics apparently but they don't arf seem good.

Next upped the ante with the Tal 2x barlow. 220x and the detail was staggering. So many cloud belts. Nice white oval in the nothern belt flanked by two darker spots. And the GRS just on the limb.

For a quick comparison i used the f5 150 Orion. In theory has better optics (1/8th wave & Hilux) but fast focal ratio and large secondary really handicap it. In isolation the view is nice but in comparison to the F11 it's night and day difference. I would put a wager on the F11 matching the best 130mm/140mm Apo refractor ever made. It's superb and hard to see how the view could be bettered for that aperture. And defintely a step up on the Skywatcher 150PL too.

My only disappointment remains the Orion Optics dob base. It needs some work and some modifications to work well.

So the F5 150 couldn't match up the 150 F11, i wonder how the Revelation 12 would fare, also being F5 but with larger aperture. The answer.....the Revelation is a revelation!!!!

The view of Jupiter in the 12 was jaw droppingly good. Full techicolour view of Jupiter and super sharp. The 150 F11 was coping with the seeing better, seemed to have more moments of good seeing. But once the 12 hit a sweet spot it pulled ahead. The GRS was like a beacon and so colourful. But the best was yet to come. A fantastic shadow transit of Io with the GRS.

I finally packed up around 4am, just couldn't leave Jupiter alone, so much going on and nights like that don't come round often.

The Orion Optics OD150 F11 is a fantastic scope, Shane is a lucky man. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting a planet killer without a killer price.

[John]

Great report Russ

It's great fun being able to compare scopes "back to back" under the same conditions and on the same object and see how they fare.

There were some lovely features showing on Jupiter last night but I could only manage an hours session so missed out on the GRS and transit

That white oval on the N side of the NEB was very striking wasn't it ? - that's the great thing about Jupiter, not only does it change each time you view it, you can actually see changes happening while you view !.

Lets hope we get more clear conditions soon

[shaunster]

Sounds like a good session Russ, I was out yesterday evening and between 9-10 and the seeing on the moon was steady and it sounds like it held out all night for some great views of jupiter

[DarkerSky]

Nice one Russ. It's great when you get a night like that. I had already come in from observing Jup by the time you went out!

[richbyers]

its hard to pack away when conditions are so good, i guess its because they're so rare- nice report Russ

rich

ps where did you get the revelation? cant find it anywhere

[Jakstaar17]

Nice report.

I managed to get around 20minutes viewing in last night too. I love looking at the positions of the moons in their orbits from night to night, working out which one is which, nearly as much as looking at Jupiter itself