[astro744]

Addendum: 19 March 2017 between 6am and 7am.

Seeing was much better this morning than two days ago but easterly cloud did drift in and kept forming providing intermittent viewing. Air was steady though much better than previous session.

Telescope use was Tele Vue 60. I always start off with 24mm Panoptic as my finder and switch to the Nagler zoom at the 6mm setting giving 60x.

Almost immediately I saw a very thin North Temperate Belt (NTeB) separated from the North Equatorial Belt (NEB) by an also thin North Tropical Zone (NTrZ).

On the south I saw a broader and whiter STrZ and a darkening at the northern edge of the South Polar Region (SPR) which was likely the South South Temperate Belt (SSTeB) but I could not distinctly see the South South Temperate Zone (SSTeZ).

Overall the SPR was grey as was the NPR The north side didn't appear as bright immediately north of the NEB and NTeB as it did on the south side immediately south of the SEB.

I then added an 80A filter to the 6mm setting and immediately noticed the SEB had its 'pimple' back with the GRS perhaps 60min from the eastern limb. I didn't notice this without the filter but then when I removed the filter it was visible just stood out more in the light blue light of the filter. This was a good test this morning because I didn't check when the GRS was next visible and found it this time by actually seeing it first.

The purpose of this whole exercise was to see how small an image can be and still provide views of the two main belts and the spot. In the better seeing conditions this morning I was able to discern the NTeB at 40x although it was only just resolved. At 45x and 51x it was a little easier but obvious at 60x. I would not normally observe Jupiter at such low powers and I would start at 60x with the zoom and move up to 120x and if seeing permitted I would switch to the 4-2mm zoom and move up to 180x. However I have found about the 2.5mm setting (144x and 0.42mm exit pupil) is about optimal for me with this 'scope before floaters in my eye interrupt the image as I begin to run out of light. Jupiter is best in slightly larger 'scopes between 150x and 250x as seeing permits but higher powers are of course possible.

I was going to add a note referring to this addendum in my original post but as I typed it up in Word and then copied it always comes up completely blank when I edit.