Jupiter High

Jupiter passed through opposition back on March 7th. Thus the giant planet is high in the sky through much of the night, well placed for observations.

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Jupiter on March 24th from Waikoloa
I was thinking of going to bed, but it was a hot windless evening in Waikoloa, not much point in trying to sleep before it cooled off a bit. The dead calm conditions made me think… What is the seeing like? A question only an amateur astronomer would ask.

Turns out the seeing was pretty good. The typical horrible seeing in Waikoloa is 2 to 3 arcseconds or worse, when the trades are blowing it can be quite bad. I suspect the seeing was 1 arcsecond or better last night, the view of Jupiter in the eyepiece was quite pleasing. Putting a camera in place of the eyepiece yielded video worth the effort in processing.