11/28/2023 0 Comments Jupiter through home telescope![]() If Jupiter doesn’t come in too clear one night, try it again the next night, or whenever. This is referred to as “bad seeing” conditions. Even if the skies are clear, high winds in the upper and lower atmosphere can diminish what you see and how much magnification you can obtain clearly. Remember also that not all nights are the same for telescope viewing. There’s no sense in seeing a blurry Jupiter, so bump down to a lower magnification. You will reach a point of limiting higher magnification where the image will become too blurry or muddy. The higher in the heavens the more likely you’ll get a clearer image in your scope because Jupiter’s light doesn’t have to pierce through as much of Earth’s blurring atmosphere as it does when it’s close to the horizon.Īnother thing that really helps when viewing anything through your telescope is to start with a low magnification eyepiece and work your way up to a higher magnification. When you’re viewing Jupiter, or anything else in your telescope, the higher it is about the horizon the better. ![]() Jupiter is a wonderful telescope target, but if possible, wait until it rises a little ways above the horizon, which unfortunately won’t be until after 11 p.m., at least for the next several weeks. To increase the chance of a good observing session, I usually plan my planetary stargazing sessions in the evening. and even then it will usually look about half the size of Jupiter through a telescope. Above: Jupiter and Ganymede photographed by amateur astronomer Alan Friedman of Buffalo, NY, using his 10-inch telescope. A home telescope of 60 to 100 mm in diameter with high magnification makes it possible to visualise the planet’s shape, but not much more. You can see Jupiters cloud belts, the Great Red Spot and four large moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) circling the planet. Just like a full moon, Jupiter rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. The view through a backyard telescope is dynamite. That’s where the term opposition comes from. Because of that, Jupiter and the sun are at opposite ends of the sky. Jupiter is still really close to what astronomers call opposition, which means the Earth is lying in the line between the sun and Jupiter. It’s available in our heavens all evening long as it takes a low arc across the sky through the night. Toward the end of evening twilight, Jupiter resembles a tremendously bright star rising in the low southeast sky. ![]() In fact, if Jupiter were a hollow sphere you could fill it with about 1,200 Earths! It’s by far the largest planet in our solar system with an equatorial diameter of 88,000 miles, dwarfing our Earth’s 7,900 miles. Back then, Jupiter was a little over 398 million miles away, but it’s still plenty close at just under 400 million miles. The king of the planets, at least in our solar system, has made a grand entrance into our early summer skies, and Jupiter will continue to dominate the early evening heavens well into October.Ī couple of weeks ago our Earth and Jupiter reached their closest approach.
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