First Home Observing Session of 2024

[+Glafnazur]

Whilst I have recently been to a number of observing sessions with the DDAS it was 25th September last year when I last did any observing from home, so I decided to have a session tonight. There was quite a bit of cloud about but I managed a couple of enjoyable hours. Initially I experienced the usual conundrum of which scope to use, and after much deliberation I went for the Vixen A80MF Achromatic Refractor f11.4 on the Sky-Watcher AZ5  mount with Jupiter being my main target for the evening. I have recently picked up an Astronomik UHC-E Filter, which is meant to help viewing Jupiter's clouds, and an SvBony 3 to 8mm zoom eyepiece which has been getting good reviews on SGL.

 

I started the night off with Jupiter and the views through the Morpheus 9mm and the ES 6.7mm were particularly good. The bands were clear and the four Galilean moons were nice and sharp with two either side of Jupiter and Europa and Ganymede quite close together. And I wasn't disappointed with the UHC-E filter, the filter definitely gave more detail. I then moved on to the Pleiades which I could just fit in the field of view when using the Morpheus 17.5. Next up were the Hyades and I had a sweep around the area using low power and eventually settled on Aldebaran. I just love coloured stars and I spent a fair while enjoying Aldebaran before moving on to Castor, which provided a clear split and a lovely view through the Morpheus 9mm. I tried to locate M35 but the cloud had thickened.

 

I was about to pack up when I realised that I had not used the SvBony zoom. I looked for Jupiter and fortunately the cloud had not covered it up. I quickly placed Jupiter in the field of view and swapped to the SvBony zoom and again I was not disappointed. Although conditions were not good enough to go down as far as 3mm & 4mm the images through 5mm to 8mm were crisp and sharp, and I am looking forward to using it again.

 

All in all it was a good session and although I'm not really much of a planetary observer I fully enjoyed the views of Jupiter using the new filter and zoom. 

[Nightspore]

Nice session. Jupiter is high at the moment, compared to what it has been like for a few years anyway.

 

[+Bino-viewer]

Jupiter never disappoints, and over the last few years, its become my favourite object to observe in the entire night sky.

[+Glafnazur]

33 minutes ago, Bino-viewer said:

Jupiter never disappoints, and over the last few years, its become my favourite object to observe in the entire night sky.

Jupiter has always been my favourite planet. 

[Nightspore]

1 hour ago, Bino-viewer said:

Jupiter never disappoints, and over the last few years, its become my favourite object to observe in the entire night sky.

 

It's very dynamic compared to other planets.

[Nightspore]

39 minutes ago, Glafnazur said:

Jupiter has always been my favourite planet. 

 

I'm not sure if I have a 'favourite' planet, mind you, I don't even have a favourite pizza topping (Margherita with ham & pineapple at the moment) but it can change lol.

[+Glafnazur]

8 hours ago, Nightspore said:

 

It's very dynamic compared to other planets.

That's what makes it my favourite 

[+Streetbob]

Sounds like a good session. Thanks for the report.

[Nightspore]

10 hours ago, Glafnazur said:

That's what makes it my favourite 

 

Cool GIF!

[+Bino-viewer]

I read an interesting thread about Jupiter and its 4 moons on SGL.

 

Question : Have you ever seen Jupiter with only 2 moons visible ? ie two moons were either in shadow, occulted behind or in transit. Probably yes.

                How about only the 1 ??  Bit of head scratching there....?? 🙂

 

But how about none at all ??  Well, yes it can happen, but its a very rare event. Jupiter must look very odd with no moons being visible.

 

Regarding shadow transits, it is impossible to see four at the same time. Due to their orbital characteristics it can't happen. But you can have  3 shadow transits happening simultaneously ;

Io, Europa, and Ganymede. But again, this is a very rare event.

I think this is why i like Jupiter so much. I've always been fascinated by eclipses, transits, occultations, conjunctions of any sort. My wife reckons i'm slightly mad.

Edited January 29 by Bino-viewer

[+Glafnazur]

3 hours ago, Bino-viewer said:

I read an interesting thread about Jupiter and its 4 moons on SGL.

 

Question : Have you ever seen Jupiter with only 2 moons visible ? ie two moons were either in shadow, occulted behind or in transit. Probably yes.

                How about only the 1 ??  Bit of head scratching there....?? 🙂

 

But how about none at all ??  Well, yes it can happen, but its a very rare event. Jupiter must look very odd with no moons being visible.

 

Regarding shadow transits, it is impossible to see four at the same time. Due to their orbital characteristics it can't happen. But you can have  3 shadow transits happening simultaneously ;

Io, Europa, and Ganymede. But again, this is a very rare event.

I think this is why i like Jupiter so much. I've always been fascinated by eclipses, transits, occultations, conjunctions of any sort. My wife reckons i'm slightly mad.

That's really interesting Rob, I can see a future DDAS quiz question there 🙂 

[Clive]

I was quite intrigued that given their short orbital periods the occurance of the disappearance of all 4 Galilean moons doesn't happen fairly frequently but it appears it is due to the distance of Callisto from Jupiter so it usually passes above or below.  A search on the web showed the last occurance was in 2021 so I missed that one (but it was during daylight from the UK) and the next one won't be until July 2033 which will be visible from the UK during the early morning sky from the UK (so I won't see that one either!)