Jupiter 11 Sept. 2007 U.T.

Date: 11 September 2007 U.T.

Time: 1:35 - 1:47 U.T.

Telescope: 13cm refractor

Magnification: 138x

Seeing: Very Poor - Fair

NELM: Twilight

Temperature: +68 F (+20 C)

Shown above is my rough, at-the-telescope sketch of Jupiter. North is up. Preceding is to the right. As part of an experiment a 1.25 inch, 90-degree, erect-image diagonal was used. Also in use was a new filter wheel; but no filters were used during the making of the above sketch. The filter wheel was loaded with various filters for deepsky use; but the planned observing session was cut short due to clouds and high humidity.

Jupiter's North Equatorial Belt was the darkest feature on the planet. It had a subtle, somewhat rusty color. The other belts on the planet appeared to be blue-gray in color. The following limb of the planet was somewhat darker than the preceding limb due to the sun angle (a phase effect).

At times the seeing was very bad, leaving nothing more than the NEB visible on the planet. At other times the seeing was fair, approaching good. The seeing was both, worse at times and better at times than it was for my previous Jupiter observation; but for the most part it was better.

Jupiter & Lambda Ophiuchi

Date: 03 September 2007 U.T.
Time: 2:03 - 2:15 U.T. (Jupiter)
Telescope: 130mm refractor
Magnification: 138x (Jupiter)
Filter: Moon-SkyGlow (Jupiter)
Seeing: Poor to Fair
NELM: Twilight (Jupiter)
Temperature: +83 F (+28 C) (Jupiter)

The above rough (at the telescope) sketch of Jupiter has North up and Preceding to the left.

Due to poor seeing conditions small-scale, moving "ripples" were constantly visible around the limb of the planet. The "star" to the upper right of the planet is Io, one of Jupiter's moons. A little later in the evening Io was seen in transit across the planet's disk. The following limb of the planet was slightly darker than the preceding limb due to the sun angle (a slight phase effect). At times more detail was visible; but under the circumstances (poor seeing and a relatively quick observation and sketch) some of the details shown may not be particularly accurate.

The planet's North Equatorial Belt (the darkest belt on the planet) appeared brownish-red in color. Other features had colors that were too subtle to differentiate from shades of gray.



After completing the Jupiter observation I observed and sketched Lamda Ophiuchi A&B, a close double star. The above sketch (greatly enlarged from the telescopic view) shows this double with North up and West to the left. A #82A Light Blue filter sharpened the view a bit under the relatively poor seeing conditions. The "A" star appeared to have a yellow or yellow-orange color while the "B" component appeared bluish. A narrow gap was visible between the two stars during intervals of somewhat improved seeing conditions. A weak, broken, diffraction ring was also visible at times around the two stars. A magnification of 218x was used for this observation.