pyat

I spent a couple of hours in the driveway of the cottage that night, futzing with telescopes and peering at Jupiter. I'd thought I'd not have a chance to get a good observation in of any planets, because of the trees. I then realized the break in trees in the drive was positioned perfectly - Jupiter rose right between them, bright and obvious. I set up shop there with a pair of telescopes, a chair, and a candle, and forgot about the bugs and darkness. I had never in my life managed to look at Jupiter through a telescope, and... well, I found that it just made me want to buy a better telescope. The ones I was using (50mm and 60mm respectively) were little better than toys, wobbled terribly, and had almost useless sighting scopes.

The camera/telescope adaptor I'd bought was too heavy for the telescopes, and too small for my good camera. But, with the magic of a mere zoom lens and extreme cropping, I was able to resolve Jupiter as a small disc with the camera alone.