Space Time Live - S2E20 - Jupiter and the Four Galilean Moons

Large Telescope: Henrietta (Meade 8" ACF + LX65 $1,339) bit.ly/3OCj58J
Small Telescope: Alice (Meade ETX 80 $389) bit.ly/3caSem8
Close-Up Camera: Puck (ZWO ASI 120MC-S $129) bit.ly/3JYeP1L
Wide-Angle Camera: Fritz (ZWO ASI 294 Uncooled $699) bit.ly/3oGaYMT
Live Stream Camera: Iphone8
Field Computer: Surface Pro 4
Recorded: August 24th, 2021
Orion Telescopes: www.pjatr.com/t/S0BMQ0pFQEVHS...
Any purchases made through the above links (even if you buy something else) will earn us a commission and help support our mobile observatory.
We host public telescope shows in Bellingham Washington, every Sunday at Sunset, weather permitting. Down on Taylor Dock, we let people look through our 10" Dobsonian telescopes and sign them if they want to.
We also place a coffee can near the telescope to accept donations. Once the telescope is either covered in signatures or we have raised enough money to replace the scope with an equivalent one, we donate the old one to a local school. We've done this twice now! The main purpose for all of this is to always have more room for signatures.
Why? Because it's fun! Think of a large community rock or an old tree stump where all locals travel to and sign, or leave some decoration to commemorate their pilgrimage. I think of our telescopes in the same way. They are community icons of curiosity and adventure.
If you're curious what this looks like, here is a photo of one covered in signatures: / cpyst20peze
I imagine that these telescopes, once covered in signatures, tell stories to students walking by. They can stop and gaze at all the different quotes, messages and dates and perhaps even be inspired to look through it. That's the dream!
How we keep this program going is mainly through donations. We keep a coffee can near our telescope and right now we're at $700 towards our next scope. If the scope becomes covered in signatures before we raise the remaining $200, we will chip in our own cash and keep the ball rolling.
If you would like to contribute to this project we also accept online donations here: www.spacetimewithrobert.space/ Thank you!
In this experiment, we were able to get a wide-angle view of Jupiter's moons AND a close-up of it's cloud bands on the same screen!
I always like to bring two telescopes with me. One big, one small. There are so many pros and cons between owning a large or a small telescope. If you can't find a happy compromise, I say get both!
However, looking through both at the same time doesn't seem feasible. But with telescope cameras and a laptop, we found a way :)
Luckily, our Surface Pro 4 handled everything just fine. I was worried running two cameras simultaneously would bog down my computer and drain my batteries, but it went great!
Today I know that Fritz and Puck should have been switched during this experiment. I just learned recently how to use our ZWO ASI 294 for planetary imaging rather than just wide-angle stuff and the results have been wonderful!
Here is a recent image of Jupiter that we took using Fritz: / chguq66lnan
Thanks for following along and clear skies!!
00:00 Jupiter and Moons
05:50 Luna
11:00 More Moons
18:20 The Ring Nebula
20:35 Vega
24:00 More Luna
32:30 Andromeda