Jupiter This Summer: Was it as bad for you as it was for me?

One thing that really put a damper on my observing this summer was how
low Jupiter ran, and how poor the views were all summer long. Here,
I've got these fancy refractors, and every time I set one up, just
dissapointment. To be fair I didn't go out more than a handful of
times, but the view in the 4.1" refractor was about as good as it got
all summer long.

I remember my first telescope, twelve years ago or so, an 8" SCT, and
Jupiter was in the same place, I blamed the telescope for much of the
lack of discernable detail. Now I feel that it was certainly a
combination. Tantalizing smudges, hinting at structure. I did see the
GRS a few times this summer.

On the upside, it will only get better in the next few apparitions.

When's Mars coming again?

I heard it was going to be as big as the Moon this time around.

rat
~( );

Viva La Esse Esse Ah

rat ~( ); wrote:
One thing that really put a damper on my observing this summer was how
low Jupiter ran, and how poor the views were all summer long. Here,
I've got these fancy refractors, and every time I set one up, just
dissapointment. To be fair I didn't go out more than a handful of
times, but the view in the 4.1" refractor was about as good as it got
all summer long.

I remember my first telescope, twelve years ago or so, an 8" SCT, and
Jupiter was in the same place, I blamed the telescope for much of the
lack of discernable detail. Now I feel that it was certainly a
combination. Tantalizing smudges, hinting at structure. I did see the
GRS a few times this summer.

On the upside, it will only get better in the next few apparitions.

When's Mars coming again?

I heard it was going to be as big as the Moon this time around.



2 Full moons. g


And yes ... Jupiter just wasn't a big deal for me either. Either
spending too much time imaging ARP's or clouds and rain. Winter and
Planets ! Now that's the ticket.

Regards

Bill


rat
~( );

Viva La Esse Esse Ah

"rat ~( );" wrote in news:1187664095.996487.190300
@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

One thing that really put a damper on my observing this summer was how
low Jupiter ran, and how poor the views were all summer long. Here,
I've got these fancy refractors, and every time I set one up, just
dissapointment. To be fair I didn't go out more than a handful of
times, but the view in the 4.1" refractor was about as good as it got
all summer long.

Hey it's our turn down under to get winter oppositions of Jupiter. You will
have to wait a bit Rat!



I remember my first telescope, twelve years ago or so, an 8" SCT, and
Jupiter was in the same place, I blamed the telescope for much of the
lack of discernable detail. Now I feel that it was certainly a
combination. Tantalizing smudges, hinting at structure. I did see the
GRS a few times this summer.

On the upside, it will only get better in the next few apparitions.

Well the next opposition of Jupiter isn't favourable for the Northern
Hemisphere either. Check out Jupiter's declination next July, things will
improve for you in 2009.


When's Mars coming again?

Around Christmas this year. A lousy opposition for us down south but not that
great up North either as Mars only gets to about 16 arcsec.


I heard it was going to be as big as the Moon this time around.

;-). There is the lunar eclipse on the 28th Aug. You can pretend you are
looking at Mars when the moon is in the Earth's shadow!

Klamzon



rat
~( );

Viva La Esse Esse Ah

On Aug 20, 9:17?pm, Llanzlan Klazmon the 15th
wrote:

Hey it's our turn down under to get winter oppositions of Jupiter. You will
have to wait a bit Rat!


So was Jupiter pretty good down there this apparition?

Well the next opposition of Jupiter isn't favourable for the Northern
Hemisphere either. Check out Jupiter's declination next July, things will
improve for you in 2009.

Oh well, I should have checked. Here in the Rocky Mountains, at 40 deg
N, I live under the Jet stream much of the time, and for something to
really be decent, it needs to be about 45 degrees above the horizon.
As soon as it starts to drop you can watch the high power images fall
apart minute by minute. That's the main reason I opted for refractors
for Planets, there usually isn't anything to see from here that isn't
visible in a good 8" aperture. My 10" Zambuto equipped Newt is seeing
limited 99.9999% of the time. ONE TIME, I saw what it could do on
Jupiter, this lasted for a fraction of a second, or perhaps it was
even a full second. I'll never forget it.


When's Mars coming again?

Around Christmas this year. A lousy opposition for us down south but not that
great up North either as Mars only gets to about 16 arcsec.


16 arcsec and that bad when you're hard-up. I'll go ahead and start
cautiously looking forward to it.

rat
~( );

Make that "16 arcsec _Ain't_ that bad"...


16 arcsec and that bad when you're hard-up. I'll go ahead and start
cautiously looking forward to it.

rat
~( );

"rat ~( );" wrote:

One thing that really put a damper on my observing this summer was how
low Jupiter ran, and how poor the views were all summer long. Here,
I've got these fancy refractors, and every time I set one up, just
dissapointment. To be fair I didn't go out more than a handful of
times, but the view in the 4.1" refractor was about as good as it got
all summer long.

I remember my first telescope, twelve years ago or so, an 8" SCT, and
Jupiter was in the same place, I blamed the telescope for much of the
lack of discernable detail. Now I feel that it was certainly a
combination. Tantalizing smudges, hinting at structure. I did see the
GRS a few times this summer.

On the upside, it will only get better in the next few apparitions.

When's Mars coming again?

I heard it was going to be as big as the Moon this time around.

rat
~( );

Viva La Esse Esse Ah

well Jup raised my soul and has all year, nice long apparition for
a change plus I finally put time in collimating the club C16 since
we had our good scope stolen for other purposes by the 'wise
men of the club' so we are down to the old C16 and its that or nothing. Im
the only MORON in the club that would tackle its
push pull collimation so I set in and I am glad to report Ive used
Jupiter along with stars for fnal evaluation ..... because I had to!
Rain set in in May and has not stopped since! So at times its Jupiter
through the clouds or nothing. Last Sunday night band detail was
great, right through the 100% humidity and haze/fog. So Jupiter
has been my soulmatre all year long for the first time ever, and Im
grateful to the gods. Just me, the C16, Jup, and the cyotes. (and
the neighbor's dog full of fleas at Pal Dows.)

Good luck - - -

On Aug 20, 9:54?pm, Gladys Jenkins wrote:
"rat ~( );" wrote:
One thing that really put a damper on my observing this summer was how
low Jupiter ran, and how poor the views were all summer long. Here,
I've got these fancy refractors, and every time I set one up, just
dissapointment. To be fair I didn't go out more than a handful of
times, but the view in the 4.1" refractor was about as good as it got
all summer long.

I remember my first telescope, twelve years ago or so, an 8" SCT, and
Jupiter was in the same place, I blamed the telescope for much of the
lack of discernable detail. Now I feel that it was certainly a
combination. Tantalizing smudges, hinting at structure. I did see the
GRS a few times this summer.

On the upside, it will only get better in the next few apparitions.

When's Mars coming again?

I heard it was going to be as big as the Moon this time around.

rat
~( );

Viva La Esse Esse Ah

well Jup raised my soul and has all year, nice long apparition for
a change plus I finally put time in collimating the club C16 since
we had our good scope stolen for other purposes by the 'wise
men of the club' so we are down to the old C16 and its that or nothing. Im
the only MORON in the club that would tackle its
push pull collimation so I set in and I am glad to report Ive used
Jupiter along with stars for fnal evaluation ..... because I had to!
Rain set in in May and has not stopped since! So at times its Jupiter
through the clouds or nothing. Last Sunday night band detail was
great, right through the 100% humidity and haze/fog. So Jupiter
has been my soulmatre all year long for the first time ever, and Im
grateful to the gods. Just me, the C16, Jup, and the cyotes. (and
the neighbor's dog full of fleas at Pal Dows.)

Yeah, some good haze can be just what the doctor ordered for observing
Planets.
Around here it's usually twinkle, twinkle little star...

rat
~( );

"rat ~( );" wrote in
oups.com:

On Aug 20, 9:17?pm, Llanzlan Klazmon the 15th
wrote:

Hey it's our turn down under to get winter oppositions of Jupiter. You
will have to wait a bit Rat!


So was Jupiter pretty good down there this apparition?

It has been when the weather has cooperated. We've had a lot of cloud this
winter :-(.


Well the next opposition of Jupiter isn't favourable for the Northern
Hemisphere either. Check out Jupiter's declination next July, things
will improve for you in 2009.

Oh well, I should have checked. Here in the Rocky Mountains, at 40 deg
N, I live under the Jet stream much of the time, and for something to
really be decent, it needs to be about 45 degrees above the horizon.
As soon as it starts to drop you can watch the high power images fall
apart minute by minute. That's the main reason I opted for refractors
for Planets, there usually isn't anything to see from here that isn't
visible in a good 8" aperture. My 10" Zambuto equipped Newt is seeing
limited 99.9999% of the time. ONE TIME, I saw what it could do on
Jupiter, this lasted for a fraction of a second, or perhaps it was
even a full second. I'll never forget it.

I recall a guy used to post here named something like CHASP who lived in
Florida claimed to always use 600 or 1000 power for viewing planets with his
Zambuto equiped Dob. Must be serious steady air there.

On Aug 20, 7:41 pm, "rat ~( );" wrote:
One thing that really put a damper on my observing this summer was how
low Jupiter ran, and how poor the views were all summer long. Here,
I've got these fancy refractors, and every time I set one up, just
dissapointment.

Yes, it was bad, but not as insufferable as SAA has been for many
months now.
The combination of low elevation and awful seeing was nearly
relentless
in KC. A couple of isolated instances of fair seeing did reveal a
fascinating chnage in the SEB about the vicinity of the GRS. It's
almost missing in certain areas; haven't seen that in years.

Dan

On Aug 20, 10:38?pm, Llanzlan Klazmon the 15th
wrote:

I recall a guy used to post here named something like CHASP who lived in
Florida claimed to always use 600 or 1000 power for viewing planets with his
Zambuto equiped Dob. Must be serious steady air there.

Yeah, Chas.

He had some tall tales.

Wonder where he's been.

rat
~( );