20170325
Equipment:
Setup the 130ST (f5), and finally polar aligned the CG4 and was able to track Jupiter with barlowed 8mm EP (163x). The 80a filter really does increase band contrast, but you loose a bit of fine detail I guess. it’s hard to tell when the seeing is bad.
Seeing
Seeing was hit and miss but the hits were exceptional and the misses weren’t terrible. good views with an 8mm ep (81x), fuzzy to clear @ 163x with a barlow.
Observations
I let the girls have most of the EP time. In particular Addy was able to make out the two orange equatorial bands on Jupiter. That’s a first for her. Shelly spent significant time with the rig waiting for that perfect seeing moment. I think she caught a couple. As for myself, I caught a few good glimpses, learned a bit about leveling the tripod and polar aligning it, and mostly enjoyed my girls getting their first look at Jupiter in 9+ months. I didn’t have the time, or energy to setup the camera and take a few videos. Maybe next time. Orion is getting to low to observe in my part of the city, with a bright western glow. 🙁 Seems like Orion slips by so quickly once it becomes observable in the early evening… It will be a long wait till next fall.