Colour of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS)

[starfinder]

Hi Yang Beng, thanks for the tips! I shall certainly attempt to view it more the higher it gets and then see how much I can ramp up the power.

I managed to view Jupiter again yesterday (Sun) morning before dawn when the GRS was visible (thanks to Gary for the advanced 'warning' on another thread). This time I observed it right till around 6.30am when the planet was around 40 deg up. The seeing was also much better than on the previous attempt last week. I also did some imaging.

I'm pleased to report that visually, the sharpness at high power was much improved (358x with 4.5mm Delos) this time. I could see 4 round swirls / festoons in the S.E.B, a thin hairline brown South Temperate Belt within the South Tropical Zone, a purplish 'lamda' shaped line in the Equatorial Zone stretching between the two main belts, a dark round knot at the northern edge of the N.E.B, and general mottling within these belts and at their edges. Plus a faint dark line halfway across the main northern temperate/polar region. And the GRS was darker in its central region than near its edges. The view as a whole was very pleasing.

I would sure like to look through your 5mm XO one day... it's quite legendary!

[lqx]

I'm pleased to report that visually, the sharpness at high power was much improved (358x with 4.5mm Delos) this time. I could see 4 round swirls / festoons in the S.E.B, a thin hairline brown South Temperate Belt within the South Tropical Zone, a purplish 'lamda' shaped line in the Equatorial Zone stretching between the two main belts, a dark round knot at the northern edge of the N.E.B, and general mottling within these belts and at their edges. Plus a faint dark line halfway across the main northern temperate/polar region. And the GRS was darker in its central region than near its edges. The view as a whole was very pleasing.

I would sure like to look through your 5mm XO one day... it's quite legendary!

Great detail Gavin!


"some imaging"... *grin...*

[Gary]

Managed to observed Jupiter at Bishan Park with my 10" dob for the first time on 1 Sept early morning (overnight session which started on 31 Aug 7:45pm).

Best view of Jupiter I have seen so far!

Heard about "swirls" and "festoons" for some time. Through all my other telescopes (which are 8" and below) under the good sky condition and near Jupiter oppositions, managed to see some of them very briefly during fleeting seconds of good seeing. Sometimes I wonder if I am imagining them after seeing nice photos of them by APers. Similarly for GRS, instead of seeing them clearly through these telescopes, I have to mentally visualise where it should be, then use all the visual clues I can make use of to see it (e.g. seeing a "break" in the band last year, averted vision, ...etc).

With my dob that night, absolute no doubts those swirls and festoons are there during moments of good seeing. GRS is just there! Such a beautiful, clean and distinct oval shape without any parts of it "smudging" into the equatorial band. The first thing that came to my mind when I notice its colour is pink guava juice! It looked fleshy pink that night.

Had a great time observing with my astro buddies there for the second consecutive overnight session. The Televue 3-6mm zoom eyepiece works well with the dob while observing Jupiter. The most pleasing view that night was at about 260x magnification.

Can't wait to see Jupiter near opposition and push the dob and eyepieces to their limits. Have not been so excited to see Jupiter again since I first saw it in my 5" MCT. Wonderful to experience the excitement and anticipation of how things will look like through a dob for the first time. It's like falling in love all over again or a second honeymoon.


Sky so clear stars can be captured by handphone camera.


Vanity shot after a tiring overnight session.

[starfinder]

Good report there! Proves again the worth of aperture.

The scope in the photo looks like a classic!