jupiter question

[ving]

just what sort of aperture and seeing conditions do you need to see other moons?

on saturday night when i saw jupiter there was 2 moons either side of jupiter (the usual suspects) and just to the right of the outer moon on the right hand side was a very faint speck on the same plain (if you know what i mean)...
coul,d have been a star (actually most likely) but I just wanna find out.

[beren]

have you got Cartes du ceil {or any other planteruim software }, plug in the time etc and zoom in and see

[iceman]

Jupiter has like 63 moons, but I thought they were all too faint except for the main 4..

[ving]

well yeah but not here at work... I forgot to look at home :ashamed:
guess i could wait till i get home.

[ballaratdragons]

David,

According to the egg-spurts, you can only see the 4 Galilean Moons through amatuer scopes. You need something about 2 metres to see any more and even then it's supposed to be hard.

That's what they say anyway.

Maybe 2 of the moons were behind Jupiter when you looked. It happens!

Your scope should pick out the 4 Galileans easy even in massive light pollution.

Dick Smith 4.5" scopes can do it.

[Striker]

What you have a public holiday for Ving's birthday...nice

[ving]

my birthday should be a PH! :D

ken, yeah i have seen the 4 main moons often but I am wondering if maybe I saw another fifth one on sat night...

maybe Amalthea or Himalia

[ving]

himalias magnitude is 14.84 according to this site
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/himalia.htm

[MiG]

My 10x50 binoculars can do it too. Though I can't remember whether there were four or less.

[ballaratdragons]

Sorry, I misunderstood you. I thought you could only see 2 Galileans.

Silly Me! :ashamed:

[ving]

lol, dont worry bout it ken...

well it wasnt Amalthea as thats much too close to jupiter.

still dont know if it was himalia or a star tho. I'd be really stoked if it was himalia! :)

it was first spotted in 1904 and I would hope that our instruments are better now !

[ballaratdragons]

It shows that timing is important when posting. Here is a funny example from above:

Mike: <i>Jupiter has like 63 moons, but I thought they were all too faint except for the main 4..</i>

Ving: <i>well yeah but not here at work... I forgot to look at home</i>

lol

[ving]

well maybe i can see them all from here ken :P

gunna have a look at cartes when i get home

[ving]

ok checked out cartes du ciel from home. it shows no stars in ther area where I was looking. I am thinking that it was the moon himalia...

below is a representation of what i saw... the extra object was really faint.

[ballaratdragons]

That would be cool if it is Himalia.

I wanna see it too! Next time there are no clouds I'll have a look.

[[1ponders]]

Hey ving I saw that on Saturday night too and thought it was a star that happened to be inline. That would be toooooo cool if it was another moon. I was only using my 8" meade so maybe it was a star. I'll check the Autostar suite and get back to you. It has a lot more stars in it than Cartes (The hubble guide stars)

[[1ponders]]

It looks like there was a star in the vicinity - HGS49630341,341 - but its mag was 14.58 and the object I saw was deffinately brighter than that. besides I don't think I can see that faint a star with my scope.

I'll keep looking

[[1ponders]]

Ok there was another one (and this one looks like its more on the right plane) - HGS 4963056,356 - mag 10.25 and 0 deg 03' 32" away from Jupiter.............

Ok I've just compared Autostar and Cartes with the ecliptic showing, and lined up the moons with the ecliptic and it looks at this stage that it might be this star as it was parallel with the ecliptic when lined up with Jupiter and the moons.

Sorry ving.

[rumples riot]

I don't think that you can see any other moons aside from the big 4. I have nver seen any other moons with my scope, I do spend a lot of time on Jupiter. And would have to agree you would need a big scope to see them. What about you guys with the bigger scopes ever seen any other moons.

[RAJAH235]

Why not take note of the time you first saw it and come back say in 30 mins/1 hr/2 hrs to see if it moved along the plane?

[ving]

might give it a go tonight if the clouds disappear :)

[astro_south]

In a thread "Fifth Jovian Moon" on on "Starrynights" Yahoo group they have identified the star as TYC 04963-0355-1 at mag 9.8.
This star is also known as BD -04 03421 and PPM 196171 - depending on what catalog you are playing along with at home :)

[ving]

well its clouds clouds everywhere and not a planet to be seen. but it seems t have been cleared up anyhow.

but my question now is how the hell did the 5th moon get discovered in 1905 with what MUST have been far inferior gear?

[astro_south]

I haven't double checked this - first one I came to.....

(from http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Jupiter/JupiterMoons.html )
"Amalthea was the last moon to be discovered by direct visual observation — as opposed to photography — when it was spotted in 1892 by Edward Emerson Barnard using the 36 inch telescope at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton in California."

Amalthea was the next moon discovered (ie No. V) after the Gallilean moons. Not sure of the quality of the optics, but my guess is most amateurs around here would swap their gear in a second for a bite of that cherry :)

[ving]

I think maybe i underestimated the quility and size of the optics back then :ashamed:

sorry edward barnard :(
;)

[MiG]

Lenses and mirrors haven't been advancing much. There's nothing high tech about the average telescope or camera lens. Thin film coatings and image stabilisation would probably be the biggest advances in the past few decades. I don't think exotic glasses are significant enough for us to look at old equipment and think "how did they survive".
A good camera lens from 50 years ago is still pretty damn good. Even more so with telescopes.