Jupiter Europa transit April 22

[matt]

Well... only coz I'm a man of my word and I said I'd post one of last night's transit. Here tis!!!

Seeing was not pretty after 10 o'clock last night but still caught Europa's shadow.

Doesn't deserve comment but feel free anyway.

Hope others had better fortunes

[Robby]

Hi Matt,
Definately worth a comment.. You have good detail there.
Actually it's not unlike once of my shots from last night... Your's is better though! My seeing was aweful.
Well done.

[matt]

Thanks Rob.

It's amazing the impact the seeing can have, even from nights where visually you wouldn't think the difference was so significant.

It's still great fun, though

Loved your Jewel Box, by the way.

[asimov (John)]

Hey nice one Matt! You captured it, thats what counts.

BTW I now know exactly what you were saying about the C9.25 focus problem. When you let go of the focus knob it shifts. I never noticed it until last night when I had a visual session. I reckon whats going on is they use thick grease on the baffle tube, & when you let go of the focus knob, the carriage/primary is still slowly sliding into position until it takes up the backlash in the threaded rod attached to the focuser knob. Its a pretty old trick: add thick grease to smoothen the action. The only way I found of controlling it better was to adjust focus very slowly..

Thoughts?

[Robby]

I use a JMI-NGF-S crayford focusser on the back of my SCT. Get it roughly right with the mirror focus then fine tune with the motorised crayford. Works a treat. Only down side is the extra inch that it adds to the optical path which can be a pain if you (like me) use a focal reducer also.
Cheers

[matt]

Yep. Well. That's what I was saying, Asi....

And like I said, the pennies are being saved for a top o' the line motor focuser. Looking forward to seeing your home-made effort.

Mirror shift is bad enough, but this other problem is more aggro than I can bare!

[asimov (John)]

I'll put up with it awhile longer. Too many half finished projects on the go as it is.

[Robert_T]

Hey Matt, they can't all be diamonds, but this is still a precious gem with GRS and red jnr in attendance plus the Europa transit. This moment in Jupiter's life and this particular view of it's ever changing cloudscape will never come again so it's unique and interesting. Nuthin but cloud here so you're streets ahead

[davidpretorius]

i like i matt, grs, junior spot and a moon shadow!

[ving (David)]

hey matty, that good! you hae got some good detail in that shot

[matt]

Thanks guys.

Hadn't even noticed Red Jnr. What a busy little night for ol' Jove.

Cheers and clear skies astro dudes!!!