Best view of Jupiter 2010

[russ]

Finally i got the view of Jupiter i have been hoping for. It was way back in August that i had a truly good view of the giant planet. Right through September and first half of October, my location has been dogged by poor seeing. So bad that not even 100x yielded a sharp view. Was becoming increasingly despondent.

So setup last night and had a quick view at 9pm. Surprise surprise.....poor seeing. Couldn't get above 80x. Was going to pack away there and then. But decided to go and watch Superbad, try again afterwards. So glad i did!

This time Jupiter just snapped in with the 12.5mm Ortho at 121.6x. And straight away could see the shadow of Io. But not only that but also the disk of Io against Jupiter. And so clear...wow. There was also a wealth of detail just popping in and out of focus. Seemed to be Festoons and knots everywhere.

Decided to up the ante with the 9mm UO Ortho at 169x. This really helped make the features pop out more easily. Some nice finer detail in the NEB. Also a nice hint of colour too plus multiple banding.

Finally upped the power again with the Vixen 6.3mm Plossl for 241.2x. Not as sharp as the view with the lower power but it did help with Io's disk. And also some of the features between the belts became slightly easier to see.

All in all a very satisfying look at Jupiter....finally.

[oldfruit]

I know the feeling about bad seeing, but that said when it does improve the view is just amazing.