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I don't know how the old guys did it, but here are some interesting quotes from The Planet Jupiter by B M Peek (1958)
1. With a 2" telescope, bearing a magnification of about 60, the shadows of the satellites may be readily seen as little black dots .....upon the disk of the planet.
2. A 3", working under good conditions will show that the belts are not entirely regular, but show darker patches or condensations.
3. An 8" is probably adequate for all purposes; a 12" certainly is.
The main sort of work he is discussing here is the timing of features as they cross the central meridian of Jupiter, which he claims can be judged to within 2-3 min, latitude of the belts, using a micrometer, colour observations etc. A lot of these guys worked with 6-8" scopes. Amazing!
Geoff
BTW, the pic in my avatar was taken with a 4", so a small scope certainly has the resolution to show a lot of detail.
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