Jupiter, 11 Feb 2026

 


 Just went out for a quick session. I haven't been able to observe Jupiter since opposition. It was very bright (as always) not long after sunset. I started out with the 32mm Plossl, then the 17mm Plossl. The 10 and 8 were to unstable, so I tried the 25mm with a 2x Barlow. That gives an effective eyepiece focal length of 12.5mm, yielding a magnification of 162.56x. The view was still wavering some, but had periods of stillness. This turned into one of the best nights viewing Jupiter in quite a while.Besides the north and south equatorial bands, I was able to pick out faint bands between them and the poles. There was also a very obvious bright white band just under the south equatorial band. When the seeing would steady down  could just make out some of the turbulence along the equatorial bands. More so in the north than the south band.

Seeing came and went throughout the session.  At its best it was about an Antoniadi III. Transparency was probably a 3-4 out of 5. There is a light layer of smoke in the valley and humidity 60% with the temperature right at freezing. There was starting to be some ice crystals in the air and frost starting to form on the ground.

 

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