The Space Stuff thread

I saw Jupiter !!


3:20am NY time... I just saw Jupiter and some of it's moons... with binoculars, no less.

Normally Jupiter is about 600 million miles from Earth. But for 2-3 days on either side of Sep 25th 2022, it's only 367 million miles from Earth.

At its greatest distance, Jupiter is about 600 million miles from Earth. But tonight, it will only be 367 million miles from us. Jupiter is on the opposite side of Earth as the Sun tonight, a position called opposition, making the gas giant appear larger and brighter than usual.

It is bright as all get out. The drawing below is approx. how it looked to me.
I assume the orange-ish things were... moons? They were a bit smaller than in the drawing.
Anyway, this is how it looked...

The moon was nowhere near Jupiter, I just added it for scale.
The moon was actually far to the left of Jupiter (at 27°), barely a sliver, and down below the horizon (-51)°.





Look at Jupiter With Binoculars Tonight

Night Sky Map & Planets Visible Tonight
Scroll down and click on "Jupiter rise and set in <city>"
Then grab Jupiter (on the graph), and move it to the left or right, and it will tell you where Jupiter is in "your" sky, at what time.









It's also easy to see with the naked eye, high in the sky to the southwest.
But with naked eye it just looks like a really bright Venus or large star.


Info:
Jupiter diameter... 87,000 miles.
Our Sun diameter.... 870,000 miles


Planets In Order: By Size And Distance From The Sun

your lucky. Most sightings are clouded with human light interference. In the 90s, I was at my sisters in Cornwall, on top of a hill overlooking Praze and St Ives. With Binos, 10x50, I could see three moons. I called my wife out and she could not believe the astral panorama over her head. She too looked through the binos and could identify 3 moons. Planets visible to the eye are easily identifiable due to the fact they dont 'twinkle'. I think its due to light frequencies, and obbects reflecting our sun.

Last time Jupiter was this close... I was 6 yrs. old (Oct. 1963).

Anak said:

It's getting to be a .5 to 1hr drive from mby to see dark skies. I'll bet you an your wife had one of those inner moments where you realize the excitement of what you're viewing, like Ghot's I saw Jupiter!! I still have the wonderment when I'm using my bino's or 6" reflector.

I was 12 in 1963 . . .

Ooh... six inch reflector. I'm jealous. It would have been fun to have one of those last night.

Would be really nice to have one of these... then I could see the Jupiterians (Jovians ?), waving back.

CGX-L Equatorial 1400 HD Telescope | Celestron




Btw... Jupiter is in opposition... you could see it in any lighting.

SUN-----------Earth-------------------------------Jupiter

Jupiter was lit up like a flashlight.

I saw the impact on Science Channel as it happened. Well, they did say a 45 second delay due to speed of light and processing time.

That final partial frame... just like one of the early hard landings on the Earth's moon.

It's that time again....


Now I have to check the sky... to see if I can see Jupiter and it's moons, again.
I got clear skies... now I just need to wait for it to come over the hills.

Any1 in the northern hemisphere should be able to see it, if they have clear skies.
You can type in your city and country here... to find where it will be.. when.

Night Sky Map & Planets Visible Tonight

Then just scroll down and click on: "Jupiter rise and set in <city>"
And by hovering your mouse over the planet, you can drag it through the night, for details.

More... Post #1871


Note: When it talks about "altitude" at that link... horizontal is 0°, and straight up is 90°.
So an altitude of say... 45°, is about 1/2 way up the sky.




On a tripod this time... 11:47pm
Same 10x42 binocs




I'm kind of bummed that Jupiter is so bright. It's like a white LED.
I'd be able to see the red spot and some bands if it wasn't so blindingly white.
The red spot and some bands are way bigger than the moons I CAN see.






LOL... I need an aperture setting on my binocs, or a 500mm lens for my DSLR.
500mm is equivalent to the 10x of my binoculars.

/edit
Canon does make an 800mm lens for my camera, and it's only $13,000

Canon 800mm f/5.6 EF lens

800mm would be 16x

@Anak

I always had a warm spot for Newtonian Reflectors. Never actually bought one, or any telescope. All my money went to camera and darkroom equipment.

And I already have a tripod and adapter for my binocs.

Binoculars: Amazon.com