Late this evening the skies unexpectedly cleared. It's been either solid cloud/rain or very thin high haze for the last three weeks or so and my focussing fingers have been getting twitchy.
Grabbed the wee 80 Achro with a 15 mm GSO Superview and went out on the deck about 9:30. Managed to track down 47 Tuc, not much cop in an 80mm but then Jupiter came up over the trees in my NE so I swung round for that.
For saying it was over the CBD the seeing was quite good so went in and pulled out the TMB 6mm Planetary, something I hadn't had much chance to use since I got it. Lined Jupiter up in the finder and waited till the scope settled on the old camera tripod and now that my eyes ahd gotten some dark adaptation actually got some good views of Jupiter and the moons.
Callisto and Europa on one side, Europa just visible outside the edge of the planet. Io and Ganymede out on the other side. Jupiter I could quite distinctly make out the two bands above and below the equator quite clearly with some shading on the polar regions. May have seen the GRS coming around on one limb but not sure. Hint of a darker smudge sometimes during the viewing.
Yes there was some CA, yes the seeing kept coming and going but the 6mm and the 80 Achro did an amazing job considering. Wide enough field to view long enough to discern some detail and good contrast. All in all spent a very good 45 minutes with Jupiter and it's moons and the grab & go proved it's worth once again.
But now there is rain and showers predicted for tomorrow and the weekend.
