Dobsonian Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Computer Looking Up

First Jupiter of 2018

The current positions and timing of our planets offer an opportunity to see both Jupiter and Venus in the sky shortly after Dusk.

Just one problem, though – the Moon was approaching Full and washed much of the sky out. So I settled for looking at the Moon, mostly.

The best way I can confirm/reconfirm which dot was Pluto would be to sketch the area around HIP 94372 once Pluto has moved significantly.

The Moon, but not the Moon. Quickly I detached my smartphone from its mount and took several pictures of the phenomenon.

With that telescope, this eyepiece setup magnifies about 333 times!

I wanted to confirm my finding as best as I could, so I started hunting for noticeable star patterns in the area of HIP 94372.

I had great difficulty locating Saturn that night and it was almost 20 minutes before I locked on.

It will be a challenge to get the ISO and exposures right, since Saturn is fainter than Jupiter.

I was surprised and a little alarmed at how the sky was brightened.

I need to align the camera’s orientation such that Jupiter moves through the field view at a plane horizontal to the camera.