Canon 18x50 IS and partial lunar eclipse. (1 Viewer)

[Binastro]

Ongoing eclipse nicely seen in clear transparent sky after rain.

About 15% of the bottom of the Moon dark with grey fringe above shaded part. 21.00 to 21.09 BST.

Lots of detail and 4 Jupiter moons with Jupiter 6 degrees to the left of the partially eclipsed Moon.

Regards,
B.

 

[Steve222]

B, nice report and pleased you were not clouded out.
A question if I may.
Have you ever seen, even if just a hint, of surface detail on Jupiter with those wonderful Canon 18X50s?
I realize it would be only a hint of a belt if anything at all.

 

[Binastro]

Hi Steve,

Yes, my eyes were better say ten years ago, and I was able to just see the two equatorial belts near opposition.

Someone with about 20/12 acuity should be able to make them out with a Canon 18x50 IS.

I have seen 4 belts with a cheap Acuter 80mm scope at 95x with a cheap Huyghenian eyepiece HM5 maybe.
Through not very good double glazing.

With my larger scopes there is an enormous amount of detail. 8.5inch Newtonian and 12.5 inch Dall Kirkham.

There was a rather poor Celestron 8. However, on one night of superb Seeing and temperature stability a wealth of detail was seen.
With the Dall Kirkham the moons are easy discs, but I never really saw detail on Jupiter's moons, although others do with with 12 inch scopes.

My eyes have never been great for low contrast markings. I never saw Venus clouds although others do.

Generally, with 20/15 acuity it needs about 20x or 22x to make out the equatorial belts.

For real detail one needs 100x and above. 200x is usual for 8 inch scopes and 300x for 12 inch scopes, with double this on the best nights with really fine scopes for very small detail.
Mars, particularly takes high magnification well.

I see Saturn's rings separated from the globe at 18x with the rings open, but now they are closing, which benefits the inner moon visibility.
At actual edge on the moons are like beads on a wire, and the dark Cassini division becomes two extra moons.
With these and nearby actual moons they combine to make subvisual moons visible.

Regards,
B.

 

[Steve222]

Hi Steve,

Yes, my eyes were better say ten years ago, and I was able to just see the two equatorial belts near opposition.

Someone with about 20/12 acuity should be able to make them out with a Canon 18x50 IS.

I have seen 4 belts with a cheap Acuter 80mm scope at 95x with a cheap Huyghenian eyepiece HM5 maybe.
Through not very good double glazing.

With my larger scopes there is an enormous amount of detail. 8.5inch Newtonian and 12.5 inch Dall Kirkham.

There was a rather poor Celestron 8. However, on one night of superb Seeing and temperature stability a wealth of detail was seen.
With the Dall Kirkham the moons are easy discs, but I never really saw detail on Jupiter's moons, although others do with with 12 inch scopes.

My eyes have never been great for low contrast markings. I never saw Venus clouds although others do.

Generally, with 20/15 acuity it needs about 20x or 22x to make out the equatorial belts.

For real detail one needs 100x and above. 200x is usual for 8 inch scopes and 300x for 12 inch scopes, with double this on the best nights with really fine scopes for very small detail.
Mars, particularly takes high magnification well.

I see Saturn's rings separated from the globe at 18x with the rings open, but now they are closing, which benefits the inner moon visibility.
At actual edge on the moons are like beads on a wire, and the dark Cassini division becomes two extra moons.
With these and nearby actual moons they combine to make subvisual moons visible.

Regards,
B.

Excellent reply, thanks very much.
I have the 12x36III model and find it very useful as it's a right pain setting up a tripod as Im stuck indoors at present.

I too observe through double glazing which is a right pain, actually a double pain { see what I did there }.
I have found that smaller apertures sharpen up the image.
I stop my 66mm refractor down to 40mm and it tightens up the image no end.
I use a binoviewer on moon with two 20mm tv plossls to yield about 60X with the 66mm refractor as I need a 1.6x corrective lens in nose piece of barlow to get it to focus.

God bless.

 

[Binastro]

My kitchen double glazing is excellent and easily takes 135x, even 185x.

My other double glazing is variable.

But if one experiments there are usually better areas of glass.

My H alpha scope was used at 32x for 2,000 days solar observation.
Mornings and late afternoons were best. Also the angle was less..
I do have 60x and 80x eyepieces, but rarely use them.

I agree that smaller apertures are better through window glass, but my kitchen window is fine at 100mm.

I also have a 66mm scope, but rarely use it.

Somebody put a 2x Opticron doubler on a Canon 12x36. That should show Jupiter's equatorial belts if the binocular is a good example optically.

Regards,
B.

 

[has530]

I can usually make out one belt with my 15x50 IS but with the stabilization on it isn’t pretty with the CA induced by the stabilizing system.

 

[Elpha8888]

B, nice report and pleased you were not clouded out.
A question if I may.
Have you ever seen, even if just a hint, of surface detail on Jupiter with those wonderful Canon 18X50s?
I realize it would be only a hint of a belt if anything at all.

I've had these 18x Canons, they are fun during the day and I enjoyed sweeping the milky way, however not the best for fine detail on planets, mine used to "swim" a little and I've had the 15x as well. The latest 32mm models have a better stabilization system but it's a shame they only go to 14x32.