Iúpatar/Jupiter

Gael Uirbeach

conas atá sibh? first time posting in this section, So is Jupiter visible to the naked eye around this time of year? I was just looking outside (looking South towards the Moon) and to the East of the Moon (left of the moon from where I am) there is what looks to be like a very bright star with nothing else around, looked on Stellarium and it seems to be Jupiter, I only have a small pair of binoculars so I cant get an overly good view, any thoughts?

go raibh maith agaibh

namloc1980

Gael Uirbeach wrote: »

conas atá sibh? first time posting in this section, So is Jupiter visible to the naked eye around this time of year? I was just looking outside (looking South towards the Moon) and to the East of the Moon (left of the moon from where I am) there is what looks to be like a very bright star with nothing else around, looked on Stellarium and it seems to be Jupiter, I only have a small pair of binoculars so I cant get an overly good view, any thoughts?

go raibh maith agaibh

Yeah that's Jupiter alright. You might also be able to catch a glimpse of it's 4 major moons through binos.

ceejay

I got a Celestron NexStar 4SE for Christmas and have been getting used to it and using it as much as I can, and Jupiter is a great subject - I can just about make out some of the colours on it, and the Galilean moons are very clear

I also got the NexImage CCD sensor, so I've been trying that out too. Still need to tweak my settings, but here's an image I was able to take of Jupiter that shows 3 of the Galilean moons

Dr Pepper

ceejay wrote: »

I got a Celestron NexStar 4SE for Christmas and have been getting used to it and using it as much as I can, and Jupiter is a great subject - I can just about make out some of the colours on it, and the Galilean moons are very clear

I also got the NexImage CCD sensor, so I've been trying that out too. Still need to tweak my settings, but here's an image I was able to take of Jupiter that shows 3 of the Galilean moons

Nice one! You appear to be getting the hang of the new equipment at an astounding rate!! I was really replying to ask you to show us the picture(s) you got but when I went to reply, there is a link to the picture in the text I am quoting from you above. Curiouser and curiouser.. Can anybody tell me why couldn't I see that link in the original post?

Anyway, picture looks great. I assume the 2 or 3 tiny spots below the centre of the picture are background stars? They seem to be too far from the plane of the other 3 moons to be other moons. Were you able to find them in Stellarium? Were you able to identify the 3 moons in your picture too?

Cheers,
Brian

Tenger

Same with me. Can only see the link when I go to quote the post

Dr Pepper

I may have just figured it out. I think it's because it's in an 'IMG' tag but the link is to a web page, not an actual image, therefore it displays nothing in the post. Here's the link for anybody who's interested (ceejay's Jupiter picture):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranwalsh/5338611795/

NoQuarter

Dr Pepper wrote: »

I may have just figured it out. I think it's because it's in an 'IMG' tag but the link is to a web page, not an actual image, therefore it displays nothing in the post. Here's the link for anybody who's interested (ceejay's Jupiter picture):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranwalsh/5338611795/

If you right click on the picture you can get the address of it and then put it in IMG tags:



Voila!

ceejay

Dr Pepper wrote: »

Nice one! You appear to be getting the hang of the new equipment at an astounding rate!! I was really replying to ask you to show us the picture(s) you got but when I went to reply, there is a link to the picture in the text I am quoting from you above. Curiouser and curiouser.. Can anybody tell me why couldn't I see that link in the original post?

Anyway, picture looks great. I assume the 2 or 3 tiny spots below the centre of the picture are background stars? They seem to be too far from the plane of the other 3 moons to be other moons. Were you able to find them in Stellarium? Were you able to identify the 3 moons in your picture too?

Cheers,
Brian

I'm having fun getting the settings right with the CCD, but the scope is fab even just with the naked eye, and I know the goto mount could be seen as "cheating" but it's helping me learn my way around the sky

The tiny spots are in fact an artefact of the CCD I think - it looks like it might have a red pixel stuck on around that point, and what you're seeing is the way the images from the AVI have been aligned and stacked, so the red pixel is moved around a little as the position of Jupiter and the moons in the frame is aligned with the other images, if you know what I mean. I played with the image settings to minimise their appearance while keeping Jupiter and the moons as clear as I could.

I was out last night and took a couple of shots of the moon:

Crater Tyco:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranwalsh/5365759040/in/photostream/


Mare Humorum & Crater Gassendi:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranwalsh/5365759978/in/photostream/


Mare Tranquilitas, Mare Crisium and Crater Proclus:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranwalsh/5365147491/in/photostream/

Dr Pepper

Those photos look great ceejay. The moon and Saturn are two targets that will always have a great 'wow factor' when you get family and friends out for a look and you've captured that kind of detail well there.

I don't know if you've checked out APOD (Astronomy Picture Of the Day) on Nasa's website. I have it open automatically on my browser every morning and there's a new picture every day with a brief explanation. Flick back through some of the recent ones. I find them to be a good source of inspiration and a good way of keeping in touch with astronomical developments both in the sky and here on planet Earth! At the rate you're going, we might even see one of your pictures up there in the near future!

Keep the photos coming.. A good challenge I enjoy is finding a relatively small/dim object (like Neptune, Uranus or asteroids like Vesta, Juno) and tracking it's progress against the background stars over 2 or 3 nights. I usually just make little drawings though because I don't have the knack (or patience) of using CCD and Registax

ceejay

Thanks very much, I'm really just finding my feet so far with my equipment, so hopefully I can improve on these . I'm looking forward to trying to get pictures of Saturn in February

Flukey

Seeing Saturn in a telescope is probably the greatest treat of all. If you get up very early, you can see it in the mornings, in Virgo. Venus is far brighter and grabs all the attention on these mornings, but Saturn is up there too. It has been cold and clear this week, so ideal for using a telescope. So there is no need to wait until February to get photos of Saturn. Judging by what you have got so far, you'll get great photos of it too.