Jupiter on a sunny afternoon

[chrisrnuttall]

Hello

I was sitting at work on Thursday, and I noticed that the sun had come out to play so I went home to do some astronomy, you've got to get your priorities straight haven't you?

I set up my scope at about 15:30 and then began to search for Jupiter using my 50mm finder, and my 50mm binos.

There was a bit of whispy cloud still in the air, but by 16:30 it had cleared and I was able to spot Jupiter in my finder.

The first sketch was made at 16:45.

The sun was still 5° above the horizon and the sky in the eyepiece was so bright that it washed Jupiter out quite a lot; a yellow filter helped with this a little and I was able to pick out a fair bit of detail. The seeing was good, about Ant II.

The SEB revival area stretched right across the disc and was a mottled tan colour with slightly darker edges.

The NEB sported it's usual ( for this year) mix of white ovals right on the Northern edge, and darker ovals nearer the middle.

The Southern tropics were notably darker and browner than the North, which was smooth and orange.

The seeing became terrible as the sun set at about 17:15 so I had a break.

The second sketch was made at 17:30, the sky was by now much darker, Jupiter was visible to the naked eye if you knew where, and the moons were visible in the eyepiece.

The planet's rotation had carried the middle section of the SEB revival across the disc and now the tail end was visible. There was an extremely narrow white rift starting near to the LHS limb and widening as it crossed to the other side of the disc. Its edges were noticeably lumpy, uneven and wave-like; it widened as it crossed the disc until the SEB was reduced to a pair of parallel dark lines close to the RHS limb.

There was a dark brown mass in the SEB just to the right of the CM, it appeared to project southwards out of the belt slightly.

The STB was noted during this observation and it was not seen in the first sketch.

Seeing was Ant II to III this time, again a yellow filter was used as well as the unfiltered view.

Both sketches at 218X

[DarkerSky]

Impressive stuff Chris, and some super detail captured.

There's something quite special about daylight observing, especially when it's capturing an old friend before it sets at the end of its apparition. My words don't do the experience justice!

You did well to find it with the sun up above the horizon

The turmoil in the SEB has been quite special to observe I think since the revival began. Personally, I'm looking forward now to a bit of summer dawn observing when Jupiter is back up in my eastern sky

[chrisrnuttall]

Thanks Seb

I know what you mean about daytime observing, there's something cool about the fact that these plantets are still there in the daytime sky, it's just that most people don't think they are - like it's a sectret or something!

Anyway, I can't do eastern horizon observing from my garden, the house is in the way! So this is the end for me for a bit.