22-4-06 Good night for Jovian Followers

[[1ponders]]

Just a heads up for JFs tonights. 22:24, start of the Europa shadow transit, 22:27 GRS meridian transit and 22:46 start of the Europa transit. A busy hour.

[asimov]

I'll be there :thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

Wish me clear skies. It's not looking promising atm.

[Robby]

Definately worth a look, but I doubt the seeing here will allow any decent imaging.. Still you don't know if you don't try!
Good luck....:D

[h0ughy]

um well this explains the twinkly bits last night

[matt]

I'm up for it. Jetstream was a bit of a prob last night. Did some imaging but it wasn't too good.

[iceman]

I'll be out there.. hope the jetstream cooperates.

[astro_south]

My chunk of glass is out cooling - might see if I can get some images to tinker with for the webcamless comp. Given all the variables of handholding the camera, I still feel there is more to get out of the setup - just need that special moment when it all comes together.

[asimov]

Don't believe everything you see with that jetstream map. According to it, imaging in my area was a no-go yet I got my best pics yet. Proof is at the eyepiece or laptop..

[matt]

Yes, it's a guide, John. Only a guide. One of its main drawbacks is the massive (12 hour) lag between updated images. Anything could be happening during that amount of time.

[davidpretorius]

i'm in and cooling, still processing from last night. fingers crossed for all and hopefully mikes gear arrived for the image scale!!!

[asimov]

I'm ready to rock N' roll here. Setup & cooling.

[asimov]

Oh, I suppose you have one of those 'joop teasers' coming Dave I take it??

[[1ponders]]

I hope it works out for you guys. It's not lookin' hopeful here. Lots of brief sucker holes :(

[davidpretorius]

chasing the temps down, i may make in time, a few clouds!

[matt]

Seeing is pretty poor here. I'll still go for it though

[Dennis]

Clouded out in here in Brissie - means I'll get my much needed beauty sleep....

Good luck to those with clear skies.

Cheers

Dennis

[Astroman]

Nice and clear here, few clouds to south, but well away from Jupiter. My 8" scope is in shed apart atm, so resorted to using my old 4" TAL-1. Very clear crisp view through it using a 4mm plossl. Couldnt achieve focus so removed the focuser :/ Took a little movie too hand held with my digital cameras movie capture mode, am processing in registax as I type. All hand held urk, not expecting anything good out of it LOL.

[[1ponders]]

Missed it here.

[asimov]

My runs over with for this evening. One with the extension tube & 2 without the tube with just the barlow. Seeing was not good. Oh well, see what comes of it after stacking.

[davidpretorius]

nope, watched eruopa start thru the 5mm supervixen, swapped it to the camera and everything started to come from the SW. temps dropped and clouds moved in. good night all!

[[1ponders]]

Yep, I got six bowls of jelly between the gaps.

[matt]

Yep. No change. Clear sky but crap seeing. Captured a few avi's just for the hell of it. Not expecting much. Will post soon.

[asimov]

Yeah, the one I took with the extension tube I deleted. 2 more to go.

[iceman]

I was out looking last night.. through the 7mm Pentax earlier in the evening (between 9-10pm) the view was great, stunning even.

At 10pm when the transits started, I tried swapping to the 4.7mm and the image just wasn't holding up at 250x, so I didn't bother getting the laptop out. As the night got later (11pm+), the seeing got even worse, so my judgement to "not bother" was justified.

The best views were with the 7mm Pentax at around 10pm just as the shadow transit started, and for the first 20 minutes or so of it. It was a very pleasing view.

I tried to spot Red Jr later on, but the seeing had deteriorated so badly that even with the 7mm at 180x it was mush and I could barely even make out the GRS anymore.

[Robby]

Ditto the seeing here. Although Jupiter was quite low during the transit times.
I imaged but I doubt I'll get anything worth posting.
Cheers

[[1ponders]]

If anyone has an avi of the time of transit I'd like to get a copy for a project I'm working on. I would also need the time (to the minute) that the avi was done.

Actually I don't need the avie just the finished bmp or jpg.

Cheers