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Old 29-10-2009, 12:11 PM
Coen
"Doc"

Coen is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Posts: 180
In recent time the contrast on Jupiter's disk has dropped off. I've noticed the bands are not as dark as they used to be for example and others have commented on the fading (in the sense of contrast) of the red-spot.

Also recently the seeing has been poor which does not help matters much either.

Still, grab yourself some timings of the eclipses, occultations, and transits (both shadow and moon) of the four principle satellites as they are good to watch as they do their dance with Jupiter. With your 127mm you should not have any dramas seeing a number of these events.

A few weeks back I had the 120mm refractor and was showing folk (school viewing night) Jupiter and fortuitously Callisto was on the edge of the disk with it just being visible with aid of a filter and patches of good seeing. Then it gradually went off the planet and appeared next to Jupiter. The kids and parents thought it was pretty cool. In fact the telescope spent most of its time on Jupiter because so many wanted to see it. He is the king and respect must be paid.
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