Set up all my gear last night and stayed out until almost 2am (DST). Jupiter, although at approximately 40 degrees was swimming in turbulence (I have a river to the east and seeing is never steady in that direction). As usual, I left my gear out, thinking I might wake before dawn and catch that magic seeing that only seems to happen in the few hours before daylight. The sun beat me out of bed and at 7:30am I decided to take a final peek at Jupiter with the 8 inch LX which had been faithfully tracking all night. Jupiter was still dead centre after 5 hours and, with the sun a couple of degrees above the horizon, still visible, and rock steady with a 26mm EP at around 76x mag. This was of no surprise as I have seen Jupiter several times after dawn. Since the image was so steady I popped in a 7mm Burgess planetary (285x) and to my surprise the image was still rock steady and the detail was the best I have seen.
If thats not good tracking, what is. I get a buzz trying to find planets before sunset, at times its a good challenge which i loose and just wait till it gets a bit darker. It would be good to see a picture of the view you had in the morning though Phil.
i did the same thing this morning. Setup around 3.30 for some excellent views of jupiter with his 4 moons trailing along behind him. Then left it setup and came back at 6.30. Jupiter was the only 'star' left in the sky. Fantastic viewing. except for the dew hehe. my first dewey encounter. kinda cool when Jupiter tracks thru the FOV and has a fractal moment thru the dewspots.
So next item to make is a dew cover for the front of my newt and work out some way to keep the eyepiece from misting up. i think a sock maybe hehe
I'm looking forward to getting Mars in my sights too. Nearly there...
Saw Jupiter yesterday morning with 4 moons all on one side and this morning too with a 12" dob and a 13mm EP. The moons were unusual today, Ganymede was starting to cross in front of J, Callisto was 1.2' from Js center, Europa was in front of J and Io was behind J. I have never seen the moons like that before.
