I believe you are right, 82A. Comes from reading the labels in the dark under red light. I will correct it in the original post.

OOPs, seems the post is locked. Well it is documented in the thread thanks to you.

 

2-27-2016

9:00 pm - Went out to look with plans to observe Jupiter but Jupiter is showing through some clouds so I went back inside


10:10 pm - Went out again. This time I took out my 15X70 binoculars to test the clarity of the air. Still too much cloud veil. Could not see moons. Went back inside.

11:15 pm - pulled out 15X70s to test clarity. Air was better. Could see two of Jupiter's moons. Began set-up.

11:30 pm 35 degrees low wind. Some haze or thin cloud veil Seeing Good

Target is Jupiter - Observation started with Jupiter about 60 degrees Orion XT8i used manually



25 mm 70 degree 2" eyepiece - 2 bands 2 moons to right. Good image, 48X



Add 2X GSO 2" barlow - 96X 2 bands plus a third darker area/band near top of planet image. Able to hold fairly sharp image

Shift to 9.7mm plossl, in 2" GSO Barlow, about 248X Image drifting in and out of focus but not too bad. Picked up dark spot on lower band about half way across planet. Appears to be moon transitioning

Shift to 6.4 mm plossl in 2" GSO barlow, about 375X - too much mag - can not get a good image.

Celestron 8-24 zoom - starting at 8 in 2" 2X barlow. Good image, about 100X Simialr image quality to 25 mm 2" in the barlow.

added #56 filter - green. At 24 mm brings up the bands but at 8 mm no apparent benefit, but no harm.

Switched to #82 filter on zoom. very little color and no apparent benefit at any zoom.

12:16 pm - moon begins to emerge from behind Jupiter near upper center band. Can see some progress of other moon transitioning planet from right to left along bottom dark band.

Best image on zoom with barlow, about 18 mm so switched back to 9.7 mm without barlow, about 124X. - This seems to be the best mag for overall image quality for the fixed FL plossl and the Celestron zoom

AT 12:30 the moon emerging from behind Jupiter has clear gap to planet. Transitioning moon has moved a little further to the left. This has been my best observation of Jupiter to date.

Completed Observation at 12:40 am.

Have concluded that the Celestron zoom provides a similar image quality to the Meade Plossls.

Tried the 9.6 mm plossl in teh 2X 2" GSO barlow and then in the 1.25" 2X Daytson barlow. GSO was better but not tremendously. The Daytson 2X looks pretty good for a $10 barlow.

 

March 2, 2016

Quick session last night.Jupiter the target. 15 minutes the duration.

ETX 80, Celestron zoom, Daytson 3X barlow. Sky appeared clear but I was getting a lot of "glow" around Jupiter so I presume the sky was not really clear.

Moons . . . O . The . are the moons in their relative positions as viewed in my telescope.

Callisto Ganymede Io Jupiter Europa (used Stellarium to pick up the names)

Saw the two main bands but could not make out any other detail at 150X. Seeing was not great and, as noted, there seemed to be a lot of glow around Jupiter. I tried my 40% transmission moon filter to see if that would help but it did not help the image. It reduced the "glow" but it just darkened the planet so I took it out.

In my 8" scope I usually use 240+ if seeing will support it but I find the 80 mm tops out at about 180X on planets and only if seeing is good.

Packed up and put away. Out and in in 20 minutes flat.

I have found that Stellarium provides a pretty consistent presentation of the moons as compared to my observations so I often go back to Stellarium to identify which moon was where. I have also found that if I set Stellarium in ocular mode and set it for about 20% lower mag than what I was using I get a fairly good representation of how the planet looked in the eyepiece although Stellarium represents the moons as being almost as large in appearance as Jupiter which is not true. They are pinpoints of light. I think Stellarium is presenting size as a representation of brightness so the moons are shown larger because the are brighter.

 

3-4-2016 10:55 pm Observation report

Dressing up for a night out - I put on a pair of sweat pants under my jeans. T-shirt, long sleeve T shirt, hooded sweat shirt and coat. Baseball type cap (the brim blocks the street lights when I am at the eyepiece). Insulated winter golf gloves. Hood up.

Sky appears mostly clear with some light cloud haze apparent giving things a glow in the eyepiece.
Temp approx. 30 degrees F with a 3-5 mph breeze. Cold!
Target: Jupiter, 4 days from opposition
Orion XT8i used manually.

Planet/moon configuration . . . . O All observations are as seen in the eyepiece.

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Celestron 1.25” 8-24 zoom – at 24 mm/50X two main bands were visible, the moons were bright and overall the image was clear and sharp.

Rotate to 12 mm, 100X - main bands visible and a hint of a top polar band or darker region. Image is still sharp but getting some focus drift due to atmosphere and suspected cloud veil. I could not see the thin cloud veil it but the glow from Jupiter suggested that there was some haze in the air.

Rotate to 8 mm, 150 X - main bands are strong but image is not holding focus well. A lot of drifting in and out of focus. With patient watching, the top band/polar region can be seen to be darker but image does not hold sharp for more than a second at a time. Eyes watering/tearing. Eye floaters are very evident as I try to tease out the visual detail with the focus dial.

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Note: As the image was not focusing well above about 150x I decided to use the time to run a comparison by swapping eyepieces and barlows around, working in the 90X to 150 X range to see if there was a combination that would provide a significantly better image than the rest. This was a test and validation of the conditions as well as a comparison between eyepieces and barlows. This was done with a combination of Explore Scientific 2” 70 degree eyepiece, GSO 2” 2X barlow, Daytson 1.25” 2X barlow, Meade Super Plossl 9.7 and 6.4 mm single FL eyepieces and the Celestron 8-24 1.25” zoom.

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Swapped in Meade 9.7 mm plossl. 124X. Image of similar quality to the zoom at that setting. Focus drifting but I can catch enough good image to observe the planet.

Added 1.25” 2X Daytson barlow with 9.7 mm Plossl, about 248X. Could not hold good focus.

Tried 6.4 mm Meade plossl, 187X. Too much focus drift. Did not like the image.

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2” GSO 2X barlow/ Celestron zoom

Best image around 18 mm/9 mm equivalent. Higher than that and I can’t get things to focus well at all.

The 9.7 plossl, no barlow, was just slightly better than the barlow/zoom combo. This seemed to give me about the best, most useable image of all. However I think I was starting to get some thin cloud veil as I could see clouds approach in the distance.

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Meade 9.7 mm with filters

56 filter – green – the filter cut down some glare. The filter seemed to bring up the ring at the top pole slightly.

82A filter – very little color. Image enhanced by reduction in glare.

82A with Zoom – This shows very little color impact from the filter. I adjusted till I found the image I liked, around 12 mm. Similar enhancement of the pole ring. I think the main benefit of this filter was to reduce some of the glare around Jupiter.

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2” barlow with 25 mm Explore Scientific 70 degree, 96X – Wide view is nice. Image quality slightly better than the zoom at 12 mm but not dramatically so.

Around 11:50 the cloud veil was becoming noticeable. I looked up and there were thick clouds coming that would cover Jupiter in minutes so I called it a night.

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Note: There have been occasions where I could get Jupiter over 240X with focus drift that was not as significant as tonight. With Jupiter in opposition in 4 days I will continue to focus on Jupiter for the next week or so, hopeful for better seeing conditions. And I would LOVE to see the great red spot. It will be evident 3/5 between 10 and 11 pm. I will try if the sky is clear.

 

I don't have an 80A but I will keep that in mind.

Using the lens only from the barlow on my 2" eyepieces brings no value as the 38 become a 25 and I have a 25. the 38 becomes a 19. the 25 becomes a 16 so that woud be OK if I did not have the 38 with me. And then the 25 becomes a 12.5 also. But I don't plan to remove the barlow bottom much.

 

So far I have been happy with the GSO 2" but I know I am not a qualified evaluator. I can only tell you that it has satisfied me.

Working with plossls I have used the GSO with a plossl t achieve a level of magnification. Then pulled it and changed to a shorter Plossl to compare the view. Very comparable. I can detect no degradation using the barlow. Some have suggested it might even improve some eyepieces.

I plan to keep it.