this is not Jupiter

So, tonight when we got home I decided to get the telescope out and have a look at the night sky. The stars were carpetting the sky, almost as spectacularly as when we were in Australia 8 years ago. In particular, Jupiter was beaming brightly at me, and I thought I'd use the (slim) bit of knowledge I'd gleaned from the Stargazing programme on telly to see what I could do.

But it didn't take long for me to get frustrated. I find it almost impossible to line the telescope up with the thing I'm looking for/at. It shouldn't be as difficult as I make it, but I really do struggle.

Eventually, with numb fingers, I decided to attach the camera to the telescope casing (it has a screw-in thingy), to use that as my viewfinder, and then close in on the pesky planet. It all worked swimmingly. I got Jupiter in the middle of the camera viewfinder, zoomed right in (and it looked really good - very grey - was I really expecting it to be bright red and swirly?), then peered through the telescope lens and lo, there she was, beaming brightly.

I quickly swapped lenses in the telescope for a higher magnification, and cor blimey guvna if it wasn't one of the finest things I've seen with my own two eyes - Jupiter, clear as a bell, with four moons, two on each side, all in exact alignment. Wow.

So I had to get a picture, right? I unscrewed the camera from the telescope casing, and the neck-strap got caught round the bolts. By the time I'd untangled it, the telescope had moved and could I find the largest planet, the brightest object in the night sky? Could I buffalo.

So I took a photo of the telescope instead.

Bah.