Please be kind.

 

 

Pictured is Jupiter and three of its moons, taken with a Nikon coolpix compact digital camera through the eyepiece of an 8" Newtonian reflector telescope. Sorry, I don't have the gear to see the Red Spot, and it wasn't visible that night anyway. As it stands, it took a drive a few miles away from the city lights with 50 pounds of gear and an hour of setup time to get this photo. I'm dreaming of better cameras and better telescopes.

I'd say UO needs a new category: City Photos -- Intergalactic

 

Thanks for sharing...so much we can't see with the naked eye.

I just download the Google Sky Map app for my phone and I am hooked looking at all the locations of the planets and stars as i move the phone around.

^I don't have that app but one of my friends showed it to me and I think that it's super cool. You can even point it straight down and see what the sky looks like from the opposite side of the earth.

wow beautiful! do you know which three moons you got?

I hadn't even heard of that Google Sky map before, but I just downloaded it and wasted a few minutes at the office staring at the (completely sunlit) sky.  Sweet stuff.  (Didn't find Jupiter, though.)

The largest four of Jupiter's moons are named Io, Europa, Ganymeade, and Callisto. These were discovered by Galileo and called the Galilean Moons.

 

I actually captured all four of them that night, and they all happened to be on the same side of Jupiter. One of them was too far out of the frame of this particular photo, which was the clearest photo of the night. I never did bother to figure out which one was which.

 

In the American pioneer days, the most accurate clocks available were pendulum clocks, which could not be easily moved without affecting the pendulum. By that time, the geometry of the moons of Jupiter had been worked out, and one could look up a prediction of the positions of the moons at any given time. Conversely, one could calculate the time based on the positions, and this method was used to set pendulum clocks to the correct time.

and to think there could be life on some of those moons! we will find out one day.

"All these worlds are yours except Europa... attempt no landings there."  :-D

lol good one! you should attach that to the bottom of your posts ha. loved those clarke books. movies too.

Here's another one.

 

 

Three of the moons were visible but it's hard to capture the moons and cloud bands at the same exposure.

My pic of Jupiter:

 

 

:evil:

^ lol - ok i can play that game!

 

here is my picture of jupiter, too  ;)

 

 

 

but seriously 8th that is an awesome shot of jupiter the planet - wow!

i go on nasa jpl, space dot com and apod every few days, i love that stuff -

 

 

 

Jupiter is in a favorable position for viewing now. Here's another one with all four Galilean moons.

 

I assume this was also taken with a consumer camera? If so, it's pretty good.

 

People who pursue this kind of stuff use CCD cameras made just for the task, with telescope mounts.

 

Example: http://www.optcorp.com/ProductList.aspx?uid=319-320-1914

 

"Only" $1499, heh heh.  :oops: And lots of cameras in the five digit price range.