Jupiter and some Sunspots from a few weeks back

[Skywatcher]

managed to do some long overdue photography a few weeks back.

If anyone looks South at Sundown - 8pm Jupiter is looking spectacular at the moment and is up for most of the night

I was looking at him last night through my 10x50 bins and if you hold them very still or prop them on something you can easily see 4 moons around the main disc as tiny little pinpricks of light.

This is Jupiters'boring' side - no red spot as its on the other side - managed to get some colour in Ganymede though ( thats the red moon to the upper right)
Jupiter and Ganymede by Sidleydoc, on Flickr

Slightly less magnification 3 moons


3 moons by Sidleydoc, on Flickr

Also the sun is waking up this year and the number of sunspots has been off the chart !

Finally got the camera working as I like it and have finally managed some decent sunpot images and surface granultion


AR 2 by Sidleydoc, on Flickr


Sunspot tiny flares by Sidleydoc, on Flickr

Roll on some clear cold dark nights this season

[MystikPiglit]

Fabulous!

[catrancher]

Amazing photos!

And when you consider that some of those sunspots are around 20 times larger than the earth... well, it just goes to show you that Douglas Adams was right about the size of the universe!

Tom (... big... really big...)

[Watchinherskip]

Ah a man after my own heart! Great stuff Chris! Tonight should be cool with the gibbous moon right near Jupiter.

It looks cool in the planetarium anyway!

[Skywatcher]

Would love to see that one day Dan for sure. I love Jupiter through a scope and can spend hours looking at it, its much smaller than with a photo but I still get a thrill looking at it directly and watching the moons gracefully move around - a few weeks back I actually saw detail in the red spot with my own eyes as we hit a brief spell of very still atmospheric conditions. I NEED to do more of this again

So nice o see orion in the sky again - each year I greet him now like an old friend, learning some of the night sky has been one of the best things I have ever done , you never feel alone

[Watchinherskip]

Very true Chris. If you get to these parts, do give me a shout and you can come over and fly through the universe with this digital planetarium...it really is thrilling. I never had feedback like that even with my best shows on the old optical mechanical one. Now you feel like you have to duck to allow Saturn fly bye. I like to look over and see the reactions on the people's faces (it is that bright now) and see kids pointing at things. Awesome.

Have you been up to see Saturn in the morning?

[Skywatcher]

Not yet but I can't wait - it is by far my favourite sight in the sky by a mile

[Dawn]

What's the bright "star" I can see out of my bedroom window at night. I think my bedroom is kind of south facing.

[Skywatcher]

Jupiter

[Watchinherskip]

Not sure how it looks to you but Venus is very bright right around sunset here at our latitude.