First look at Jupiter.....ever !

I lie, saw it through cheap badly collimated tasco 10x50 bins some time in the 90's. Could have been the last time it was in Sagitarius because it was as low in the south then as it is now. So I guess about 12 years ago in '96. Was that Hale Bopp year?? Speaking of which...now that was a comet! I remember pointing out what was the most amazing sight in the night sky in living memory and plain as day and huge to the naked eye, and all I'd get in response would be, "yeah, whatever"

Sorry, I digress, must be the combination of excitement and the late hour

Was lying in bed browsing into the wee hours and before I turned off the PC for the night, for some reason I checked the bbc metoffice sat image page. Woah, "that big clear patch has moved over us". Got out of bed in me boxers and grabbed the bins and went out the back garden in me bare feet. Second Woah in the space of 2 minutes. Jupiter is, up and its between the gap in the tree's.

Arrgh, 3.30am but the temptation, oh the temptation....Feck it!!

Ran back inside and threw my clthes on and headed back outside and gingerly got the scope out of the shed trying to make as little noise as possible, so as not to wake the family or neighbours. Roughly aligned the EQ platform, quick collimation, swung her around and by golly if it wasn't a beautiful sight through the..................Finderscope!! Beautiful crisp disc and 4 moons to the west of it.

Knew the seeing would be dire and started off with the 8mm Hyperion. Holy Cow!! Its huge in the FOV at 187x. and the moons resolved to little discs!! Sure enough though the seeing was attrocious. Mush when focussed and when only slightly defocussed one could see the rushing air currents across the disc. Threw in the 5mm 300x and 3.5mm 428x just to give myself an idea of what size disc I would see in my FOV if I was in OZ and could actually use them.

Huge is the answer!! I remember Dave mentioning barlowing an Ep for 700-800x on Saturn this year on a night of great seeing for a laugh. Well I 2x barlowed the 3.5 for 850x for a laugh. Absolute mush but OMG, the disc was about a quarter of the FOV :lol:

Decided I had better get sensible and stop messing around before Jupiter went back behind the tree's, clouds came, and it got bright. Tried the 13mm,17mm and 21mm for 115x, 88x and 71x. I might be wrong but Jupiter with the 21mm looked as big as Mars at opposition did in the 5mm :lol:

Settled on the 13mm at 115x. The 2 main equatorial bands faintly visible.

Finished up after about 40minutes outside when the clouds rolled back, it got bright and Jupiter disappeared behind the next tree. All happened at once

Thrilled to say the least, even if the views weren't that good because of the low altitude seeing.

I don't know if I can wait for another 3 or 4 years for a decent Northern hemisphere apparition. Think I might emigrate to Oz first :lol:

Thats great stuff Keith,
I can sense the enthusiasm reading the post, always experiment with the eyepieces, you never know what you might find.
It always amazes me how massive Jupiter looks through a scope.
Were any of the moons near the disk ?

dont suppose you noticed this ?? :shock: :shock:
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080523.html

Not a hope Dave. When I say mush I mean mush At the lower powers I could just about make out the two main equatorial bands very faintly. Depending on the progress eastwards of the patch of cloud over the midlands, I might head back out about 1am and do some DSO observing while I wait for Jupiter to get between the trees. The viewing window is only about half an hour even moving the scope once or twice. I think I'll be waiting for opposition to bring the scope out the front for an unobstructed/non time limited view. Won't feel as much of a loony with the scope out front at 11pm-1am than I would at the moment if I brought it out front at 3am

I cant wait to see Jupiter in my scope. I know its much BIGGER then Saturn..............and if i feel the same way when i saw Saturn for the 1st time..........................

I'll be over the moon..................so to speak.

Its a tiny bit wider then the diameter of saturns rings, but because its a disk, it looks massive.

Its a tiny bit wider then the diameter of saturns rings, but because its a disk, it looks massive.

I'd be MORE then happy with that.

It's gonna be about twice the size of Saturn

Thats gonna look massive even in my scope.