I saw an opportunity a few nights ago when there was a break in the cloud cover to get in a little observing. Since I had just finished repairing a Meade ETX 60AT I thought this was a good time to see how well it performed.

I quickly setup the telescope and gave myself 20 minutes to allow my eyes to adapt while I looked over the night sky. It’s interesting to see the constellations changing this time of year as the remains of the summer constellations are passing overhead to the West and the winter constellations rising up in the East. But as I saw clouds approaching from the West I knew I had only a few minutes until the entire sky would become overcast.

The target would be Jupiter rising high in the East and well placed for viewing. Using my 27mm Extra Flat Field eyepiece (13x), Jupiter’s four bright moons are easy to see and I can make out the Equatorial bands quite well.  I dropped in my TMB 9mm planetary eyepiece giving this scope 38x and the Equatorial bands are well defined. I also noted a little shading toward the North Polar Region.

Jupiter is a great target in any telescope and the observing season for Jupiter is just getting started. After the Sun, Moon and Venus, Jupiter is the forth brightest object in the sky. Depending on Jupiter’s position in relationship to Earth, the planet can vary in magnitude from -2.9 at opposition, which occurred October 29th, 2011, to -1.6 during conjunction with the Sun. The smallest of optical aid will reveal the planet and its four Galilean moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Telescopes of 60mm aperture will reveal the North and South Equatorial Bands and with telescopes of 90mm and up even more surface features become visible. It’s always fun to watch as the Great Red Spot crosses the central meridian, although the GRS can be a bit tricky to see at times, or to watch the shadow of Io drift across the surface of Jupiter.

Don’t miss out on any opportunity to view the “King of the Planets”. There’s always something happening at Jupiter.

Clear Skies!

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