Bill's Sky

I have been disappointed with views of the planets in my C8 SCT ( Celestron 8" Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope). I am not seeing the level of detail it should provide. On Jupiter I can regularly see the North and South Equatorial Bands, but no detail in them and only occasional hints of other bands. There are several potential reasons for this, especially sky conditions. I live in a mountain valley between two significant mountain ranges. The highest range, the Bitterroots,  are just west of me and very rugged. This means there can be significant disturbances to the airflow above me affecting seeing . To test this out I wanted to set up my old 4.5" Newtonian Reflector on a German Equatorial Mount (GEM, or just "equatorial", for short). I had not used it in several years. This telescope is old enough that it uses 0.965" eyepieces. Over 20 years ago I remember using it in alt-az mode and seeing the Great Red Spot and more detail than I am getting now with the SCT. T...

Top image is sketch of M65 and 66 through 32mm Plossl. Bottom image is sketch of Jupiter through 25mm Plossl with 2x Barlow      The sky tonight is very bright. The Moon is about 75% illuminated. Transparency isn't real great, there is a layer of haze/light smoke over the valley. The layer is visible as you look at the horizon. NELM is about 3.5. I can barely make out Pherkad and 3 of the stars in the handle, including Polaris. Despite this I wanted to observe some of the Messier Objects in "Turn Left At Orion" while they are visible. This is the time of year when most of them are visible and I hoped to see quite a few before they are gone for the year. This is also the time of yer that a lot of amateur astronomers engage in a Messier Marathon . The goal is to observe all 110 objects in a single night. It's not for me, but a lot of people enjoy the challenge.  I had remounted the OTA on the pier before dark to get ready. My first targets were picked because they wou...

   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 ...

  Crater Thaetetus The sky was mostly clear, but very bright and transparency was low. The Moon was at about 60% full waxing. Bright enough to cast visible shadows. There was also a lot of moisture in the air. The lights on the side of the truss company, about 1/2 mile away, had halos around them. Luckily no dew formed while I was out. Seeing was probably Antoniadi 3, possibly 3.5. I wasn't able to push magnification past 156x without turning Jupiter into a fuzzball of light. I was hoping it was better because I wanted to check collimation after the 'scope fell last time I was out.  With the sky so bright, I made Jupiter my initial target. I was only able to resolve the North and South  Equatorial Bands. Seeing was unsteady enough that at times they disappeared. The Galilean moons were easily visible. I had read that using the Moon filter on Jupiter can sometimes help bring out more detail, so I gave that a try. The only effect for me was a dimmer view. I spent quite a wh...

  Sky was looking clear so I set up about 19:30 MST. Plan was to just look at the Moon and then Jupiter. I used Solar System Alignment with Jupiter for the alignment target. I messed up and put the date in as Dec 12 instead of Dec 10! I didn't realize what I had done until later. GoTo was obviously off  because of that, but tracking was good and I was able to scan over to the target, Moon was at 77%, very bright, and was the first target for observation. Just after I got aligned and moved to the Moon a layer of cloud started moving in from the northwest. it eventually mostly obscured Jupiter. It kept moving SE and didn't affect the Moon. I initially had the 32mm eyepiece in just to scan and look for interesting features that might catch my eye. I didn't have the Moon filter in to start, but it was so bright it left an after image in my eye when I looked away. I put the filter in to make it easier to look at. I started looking along the terminator and the rim of Montes Jura ...