Jupiter transits

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Hi all

Its been a great night for observving here in Albury - currently catching Callisto, Io's Shadow and Io.

Its steady as a rock - so we must be getting some good conditions here.

Cheers Petra d.

[MrB (Simon)]

Yep, enjoyed it too, despite the cold.
First chance us Sandgropers have had to catch the 'Bird Strike' but no joy.

[erick (Eric)]

Same at Snake Valley. But plenty of moisture in the air through to fog at times!

Callisto was clearly observed in front of Jupiter followed by Io's shadow. But some hours later when the "Birdstrike" should have faced us, I couldn't detect anything. But it was a pretty steady view.

[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Very steady conditions here as well, recorded loads of stuff. Couldn't stay up to have a look at the impact point though, had to get some sleep eventually :-)

cheers, Bird

[Stardumb (Nigel)]

Hi Guys,

Being a mature aged newbie, I need opinions on what I may have seen.

I am clever enough to figure out that the big bright thing currently in the sky at night is Jupiter, but what I would like to know is did I actually see the moons through my 10 x 50 binoculars.

If I describe the viewing situation, hopefully someone will be able to figure out if I was actually seeing three moons of Jupiter. I was viewing from Granville, NSW (see my co-ords) at about 730pm last night (23/7) looking in an Easterly direction. Jupiter was about 60 degree up from the horizon. After I finally was able to get a good steady focused view of this big bright thing, I then noticed three tiny little white specs in verticle alignment, situated on the vertical axis of the planet. ie verticle to the horizon.

Two of the white specs were on top of the planet and one was below, or it could have been vica versa. I wish I had of drawn a picture so I remembered.

I don't easily get excited about things in life anymore, but when I observed the white specs near Jupiter, I felt proud that I may have actually seen something significant. About the only other heavenly body that I have looked at, knowing what it was, is the Moon....plus that time I looked at the Sun thru the bino's.......nah just kidding! I ain't that stupid.

So, is it possible to see Jupiter's moons through binoculars?

Is this what I saw last night?

I am sorta hoping Jupiter will still be around on 1st August, as I will be attending the Macarthur Astronical Society public viewing night, and plan on joining on the night. I tried to figure it out using my copy of THESKY6 Professional Edition, but I obviously am not quite smarter enough how it drive it effectively, just yet.

As the late Big Kev used to say, "I'm Excited".


regards,

Nigel

MODS: If this post is in the wrong place, please feel free to relocate it.

[MrB (Simon)]

Nigel, yes you did see Jupiter's moons.
Cool isn't it?

If you had some more magnification... say 100x, you would have also seen Io's(moon) shadow passing across Jupiter... time you got a telescope eh?
Welcome to the IIS forums and your new obsession!

Edit: forgot to say yes, Jupiter will still be visible on the 1st Aug.

[Stardumb (Nigel)]

Rather than buy a telescope, I may look into some sort of corrective laser surgury on my eyes, giving them a magnification of, say, 100 x. I could then get some Barlow lensed spectacles, to reduce the magnication for daily use of my corrected eyes.

The beauty of this proposed solution, is that my viewing apparatus is very portable, easily tracks celestial objects, is auto-focusing and would be stereoscopic.

By the way, thanks for the welcome.

Nigel

[picklesrules (Nicholas)]

LOL i love your idea nigel tis awsome makign millions rite there mate

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Thread moved to general chat. Imaging forums are intended for posting images rather than general chat about imaging or observations.