First look at Jupiter.....ever !

Well it turns out the imaging session was a bit of a bust. Clouds stayed away all night. I could see Jupiter on the rise through gaps in the leaves of one of the tree's while I looked at a few Globs and it just seemed to take forever to approach the gap in the trees.

I was ready in time. I fine tuned the collimation for the second time in the night to make sure it was perfect. I had the camera set up, the EQ platform polar aligned. The first problem was I am pretty sure with the current spacer I have on the focusser that I had enough ?back focus? for imagining Saturn without a barlow. Well with Jupiter I couldn't bring just the webcam sans barlow to focus. Couldn't move it close enough inwards towards the secondary. Not a problem because I do have a thinner spacer for my moonlite and enough drawtube length that permanently changing for the thinner spacer is not an issue for my eyepieces, but.......not much consolation that this spacer can be swapped in in 5 minutes when you only have a few minutes window between the gap in the trees.

So in went the 2x barlow and it took a while to center Jupiter and start the capture. 1 minute into the capture and Jupiter had gotten too close to the other side of the gap and leaves got in the way and brightness and contrast of the images plummetted. Window of opportunity closed with about 500 frames captured but at an image scale forced by the use of the barlow that was too much for the seeing.

Speaking of the seeing. I actually thought it was very good last night considering how low Jupiter is. Certainly much much better than the other night. I had thought the other nights low altitude seeing was probably the best that could be hoped for but last night proved my initial assumption wrong.

My 5mm at 300x was still mushy but the two main equatorial cloud bands were much higher contrast and darker than the other night. Thought the view with my 8mm at 187x was great! Still shimmering a bit but the main 2 bands really jumped out and whats that.....a little nodule on the side of jupiter...is it the seeing shimmer....no its pretty constantly visible there......Then it hit me. One of Jupiters moons just finishing its transit!! Very Very Cool!!

So it looks like the gap in the neighbours trees isn't really worth wasting any time on. I do need to bring the scope out front but like I said, I am loath to do this at 3am. Don't think I'll try imaging again till July/Aug when I won't feel like an eejit luggin out a big scope onto the road at 3am but at 11 or 12am instead.....Well unless there is an SDAS observing session before then.

Jeez.
To quit your hobby just coz of a few trees?
Get a chainsaw dude!

All jokes aside,
I just have a (probably) very stupid question.
Is there no place else of convenience to you apart from your front driveway fro you to image from?

The reason why I say this is because if your trying to image something as
bright as Jupiter (and with it being so low) then a bit of LP isn't going to matter.

I got one of my best images of Mars at opposition through
an upstairs (open) window!

Jeez.
To quit your hobby just coz of a few trees?
Get a chainsaw dude!

All jokes aside,
I just have a (probably) very stupid question.
Is there no place else of convenience to you apart from your front driveway fro you to image from?

The reason why I say this is because if your trying to image something as
bright as Jupiter (and with it being so low) then a bit of LP isn't going to matter.

I got one of my best images of Mars at opposition through
an upstairs (open) window!

Who said I was quiting my hobby! Just quiting wasting my time trying to image jupiter through that little gap. Also quiting staying up till 3am especially to look at Jupiter Visually through that gap. If I am out that late with the scope anyway, of course I will have a look while it is in the gap.

Unfortunately the back of the house faces east and the front faces west. So no view of the south through a window. I have a good view of the south from the front garden and even though there is a streetlight in that direction, as you said, this shouldn't be a problem with Jupiter being so bright. Even less so with my light shroud, tube flocking and GLP which I can hopefully zap the light with to turn it off for a few minutes :twisted: None of that is at issue, its purely that I am not quite prepared to come out of the closet yet with the neighbours for them to see me with this cannon in my front garden at 3am when they come home from the pub! Won't feel as much of a nutter come late July/Aug when Jupiter is at the meridian at 12am.

I wouldn't feel safe any further than my front garden on my own with so much gear and a laptop in tow. Thats why I will definately jump at the chance to image Jupiter earlier than anticipated, should there be an SDAS observing session before July/Aug because I'll have a few bodyguards!

its purely that I am not quite prepared to come out of the closet yet with the neighbours for them to see me with this cannon in my front garden at 3am when they come home from the pub! Very Happy Won't feel as much of a nutter come late July/Aug when Jupiter is at the meridian at 12am. Very Happy

I wouldn't feel safe any further than my front garden on my own with so much gear and a laptop in tow.

Keith how about i come out to Bray and protest you from the lunatics (i can run them over in my wheelchair) and maybe get a look through your scope.

Looks like i was right about a comet next month. Boatini(?) is gonna be in the east from mid month.

Thankfully not in the west or south.

Hi guys

I've been waiting for ages to see Jupiter and finally last night after a trip to the khazi at 3am, I glanced outside and there it was!

Didn't want to wake the whole house up so set the scope up in the spare room.
Considering, the street lights and double glazing I could see the two main equatorial belts really clearly until I pushed the magnification too high.

Saw the galilean moons, two either side of the planet

Can't wait to see it outside

Hi CJ,

Believe it or not, if you were looking through a window (with the scope i mean) at Jupiter, the belts seem clearer than if you look at it outside. Ive tried this and it actually looks better through the window. It may be just in my scope but it appears too bright to see any detail in it when it is outside.
I red in one of Birds posts(our friend in Australia) that a kind of moon filter might make it dark enough to see the belts clearly, never tried it so i dont know.

Dont Know what might cause it but it might have something to do with the refraction in the glass. Im sure a few of the people on the boards have had a similar thing happen, and they might be able to describe it better.