Once I had Jupiter lined up the view was clear and steady. I settled on a 5mm eyepiece (5mm XW and 15mm RKE + 2.5x Powermate; a Baader Contrast Booster filter was also employed) as a good compromise of contrast and magnification for the seeing this night. In the
The North Equatorial Belt was very prominent and was a ruddy-brown color and the belt had irregular borders above and below. Below the North Equatorial Belt that ruddy-brown color slowly bled toward the Equatorial Zone which was broadly a lighter ruddy-brown with a central band being a bit darker (i.e., the Equatorial Belt). I could also detect some shading differences just below the North Equatorial Belt , which I surmised were probably some Festoons but the little 81 was not pulling in anything distinct relative to those to confirm actual Festoons. The South Equatorial Belt, also quite prominent, was a bit thinner than North Equatorial Belt and had a distinctly gray color. Below South Equatorial Belt, the South Tropical Zone was bright white followed by a rather ethereal South Temperate Belt (also grey) and then a broad shaded area for the South Polar Region. The South Polar Region was also a grayish hue, and it got progressively darker as it approached the pole.
Moving northward of North Equatorial Belt, the North Tropical Zone was not near as bright and distinct as the South Tropical Zone , but unlike the ethereal South Temperate Belt the North Temperate Belt was very distinct and a dark gray color. Above it a bit lighter North Temperate Zone was a demarcation line for the beginning of the North Polar Region. Like the South Polar Region the North Polar Region was broad and it progressively became darker in color as it approached the pole. While the South Polar Region was gray, while the North Polar Region had more of a steel-blue hue. For those not familiar with all these region names on Jupiter, here is a link that shows them - https://astronomy.com/-/media/Images/Ma ... jpg?mw=600
I observed Jupiter for about 1 hour, and in that time I also got to see the moon IO vanish behind the left limb of the planet. Positionally it visually intersected the left limb of Jupiter at the southern boundary of the North Equatorial Belt. I always like watching when the planet occults one if its moons as when it starts to visually contact the limb, it seems to make the limb of the planet look like it gets a bit of a dimple before it winks out behind the planet. It is also fun for me to see (when the seeing is steady like tonight) a very well formed and distinct bright little orb of a moon just begin to touch the limb of the planet as it is very reminiscent of a close double star when the magnification is enough that the central ball of the airy disks (i.e. the spurious disks) are well seen.
Overall a wonderfully satisfying planetary observation. Always amazes me how much detail a well appointed 80mm
