Jupiter - First observation of the year!

Sunday 26th July: After a warm, sunny and blue sky day, the evening rapidly brought the cloud! I had planned an evening's observing session in the back garden of a fellow member of Doncaster Astronomical Society, Sandra, who lives just around the corner from me! But yes...you've guessed it, the clouds were trying to put an end to my plan. After a couple of phone calls, I packed scope, laptop, webcam and lenses for a couple of hours observing. The sky was clear when I packed the kit into the car but had clouded-up when I got to Sandra's. We discussed the merits of setting the scope up as the cloud did present a few gaps and wide areas of clear sky were available for short periods. Well I quickly set it up, managing to get a couple of alignment stars; Alkaid in Ursa Major and Arcturus in Bootis. At 01:08 BST, Jupiter was in the eyepiece of the scope and at 76x, gave a pleasant crisp and clear image. The Equatorial Belts were very noticeable as were the Polar Regions. The Jovian satellites were obvious as were the close stars of the constellation Capricorn. But it was all too brief, more cloud passed over the area so we used Sandra's binoculars to scan the clear patches of sky. The scope was still tracking Jupiter and another clear patch presented the planet. We racked-up the power by using the 15mm lens (133x) and enjoyed another stunning view for a few minutes. All too soon the cloud thickened and that ended the session. All-in-all a very enjoyable if short observation and my first of Jupiter this year! Thanks to Sandra for inviting me over to view Jupiter from her garden.

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