Saturday, September 05, 2009


Matt got out his telescope last night to view Jupiter and its four Galilean moons: Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and Io. We were able to see all four moons, as well as the horizontal bands around Jupiter. The spot wasn't visible; it must have been on the back side. Here's a website that helped us identify each of the moons.

According to the website, Callisto was on the far right, Ganymede was on the far left. Io and Europa were closer to Jupiter, respectively, on the left side. Matt's telescope inverted the image, so everything was on the opposite side. My camera shows the direct view.

I took a few photos with my digital SLR camera. This one shows Jupiter as the bright spot. The two small spots right next to it are probably the two outer moons, while the bulge on the left side might be the other two, which were quite a bit closer to the planet, from our point of view. I don't know what the other bright objects are. The view was far better through Matt's scope. We may look into buying a few connectors that would allow us to take photos directly through the telescope with our camera.

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