Third light: Jupiter and Pleiades

[Debostar]

Tonight, it was windy but the windiness wound down;) at around 1600 GMT....

My first object was the king of planets, Jupiter and this time, I was able to see the faint brownish colours on the giant planet, plus also the one of the two 'tyre marks'...Or it may have been the great red spot, but I doubt it...I used my 9mm EP, and I have ordered a 2x Barlow from ebay to help make Jupiter a bit larger.

The whole Jovian system displayed 3 moons only tonight, as I think one of the moons is being shy and hiding behind Jupiter...Jupiter was at the bottom and the other 3 moons were on a line and the whole Jovian system appeared inclined at about 40-45 degrees to the horizontal...and was moving down...How can one explain this inclination??...Does it depend on my location on Earth, or does it have to do with the way the scope was inclined during the observation? In Stellarium the Jovian system appears approximately vetical using my time and location data.

After spending about 45 minutes with Jupiter, I did a bit of goto but wasn't impressed with the results, then I slewed the scope myself using the finder and I managed to find a beautiful group of stars....I consulted stellarium and I confirmed that it was Pleiades. When I did a goto, the scope went to somewhere else...It must have been very wrongly aligned (also known as a cockup)...I suppose my error was to use Jupiter as one of my alignement stars...That, clearly, was wrong.:o

Anyway early tomorrow morning I shall venture my first non-balcony observation, in a truly dark site on top of a mountain.

My primary object will be Saturn and maybe Venus, plus I will try to get some Eastern, Southern and Northern M and NGC objects, that are not visible at home...

I plan to be there by 0000 GMT.

[MorningMajor]

.I suppose my error was to use Jupiter as one of my alignement stars...That, clearly, was wrong.:o

The goto should work ok using Jupiter - though is usually more accurate with a Sky Align - have you entered your City or your Long and Lat co-ords? If using coordinates make sure you've got your East or West correct (unlike my fist attempt!)

And isn't Pleiades beautiful?

[Astro Imp]

Just one thing I would mention regarding your GOTO problem, did you enter the date in the correct format - mm/dd/yyyy?

You're in for a treat going to a dark site.

Look forward to reading your next report later.

All the best.