First Viewing of Jupiter

[stufft]

I got home tonight and managed to catch a small glimpse of some cloudless sky. I thought woohoo and promptly took my new aquisition out to the back garden. I attempted to do the alignment for the goto system but as I could only see Capella, the moon and Jupiter it wouldn't work. oh well, I slewed the scope round to jupiter and thought wow it looks great, I then played about the various EPs and barlow and couldn't believe how much detail I could see.

I managed to make out some banding of Jupiter itself and also saw 4 moons all in alignment. At first I thought the moons were reflections of light but after checking stellarium and confirmed the alignment I can now state that I have seen banding on Jupiter and 4 moons.

I then had a quick look at the moon between clouds and was astonished at the detail. Eratosthenes was clearly visible just at the transition from light to dark and thought it looked a bit like a sattelite dish (only way I could picture it in my mind to check later). I'm so chuffed I bought it now. Can't wait for a proper cclear night and dark area to get a proper view.

[astronymonkey]

Jupiter is always a great thing to see, even better first time round ...wait until you see Saturn though and can clearly see the rings around it.

Happy viewing !

[MorningMajor]

Saw it myself for the first time a couple of weeks ago - pretty impressive eh?

[Lurker]

Jupiter is always a start, Wait till you see Galaxies and Nebulas. If you haven't seen them.

I have only saw The Great Orion Nebula, Jupiter and The Moon along with Beehive Cluster. Still waiting to see Saturn but weathers been so bad for 5 days.

[astronymonkey]

Saturn is worth getting up early for (at the moment).....or staying up for if the sky is clear

[stufft]

hope to see lots more soon. Back garden is pretty poor due to street lights so i'll need to find a nice dark spot for future viewing. Looking forward to it though

[JamesM]

Dark skies do make a difference, especially when you get into looking at Deep Sky Objects (DSO's). The other advantage is when you're out late (time flies by) it can be a bit of a hassle observing at home when it comes to keeping quiet, be it when slewing the mount or when packing up your kit. When you're out, especially with other people, its rather nice to talk about what you're looking at rather having to whisper. Try contacting your local astro club to see if they have a group of observers who may have secured certain locations to observe from.

Clear skies

James

[stufft]

Is there a website that lists astro clubs or is it just a case of googling? Btw I'm based in Glasgow if anyone knows of one?

[Astro Imp]

Hi

To find your local society look at the Federation of Astronamical Societies, find them here:- Member Societies

Hope this helps.

Alan.