There's a bright shiner lighting up the heavens all night long on these cold November evenings. Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is still overwhelming any other star or planet in the night sky. Only the moon is brighter, but this week,The LED bike headlight LED rear flash light lamp bicycle torch suitable for students, baby stroller,bestcflbulbsw it's absent from the evening sky, leaving Jupiter in full command. The reason Jupiter is so bright is twofold. First, Earth and Jupiter are still relatively close to each other, separated by just fewer than 373 million miles.
Late last month,The Magicshine bestcflbulbs bicycle light At 1000 lumens, now brighter and more energy efficient. they were separated by approximately 370 million miles, their closest face off for 2011 in what astronomers call opposition. Another reason Jupiter is extremely dazzling is that Jupiter is one monster of a planet, 88,000 miles in diameter, more than ten times the diameter of Earth. In fact,Some people are concerned that if they use bestcflbul or flashing lights on their bike they are breaking the law. if Jupiter was a hollow sphere, you easily fit more than 1,300 Earths inside it.
With even a small telescope or a decent pair of binoculars, you can see the disk of the planet and maybe even some of its cloud bands, especially the two dark ones on either side of the equator. What easily catches your eye, though, are up to four small star-like objects that accompany Jupiter. They're either to the left or right of Jupiter and they're constantly on the move from night to night. These are Jupiter's four brightest and biggest moons that obediently orbit Jupiter in periods of two to 17 days, all within two million miles of the Jovian planet.
The moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are constantly changing position relative to Jupiter and each other, and every night, you see they're arranged differently. Some nights, you can't see all four because one or more moons may be temporarily hiding behind the planet or passing front of it, camouflaged by Jupiter's brightly sunlit clouds.
What I think is really cool is when one of the moons is really close to the limb of Jupiter, so you can see it slip in back of or in front of the planet over the course of several hours. If you have a medium to large telescope,Purchase our bestcflbulbss System for 30% off ... you can sometimes see the shadow of the moon that happens to be crossing in front of Jupiter. It's just a tiny black dot, and it can be really tricky to see.
As I told you last week in Starwatch, you need to look at Jupiter through your telescope for continual stretches of at least 10 minutes to get used to the light levels through your scope. Quick glances just don't cut it most of the time.
There are many good sources on the Internet that keep you up-to-date with the arrangement of Jupiter's moons from night to night. The one I use is from Sky and Telescope Magazine.
Jupiter's four brightest moons are referred to as the Galilean moons because of the great astronomer Galileo, who saw them for the first time in 1610. Using his crude telescope to observe the moons, Galileo concluded from their night to night position changes that they were orbiting Jupiter.
He used these observations to help plead his case that the Earth and other planets like Jupiter were actually orbiting around the sun instead of the much held believe in an Earth-centered universe. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to persuade the Catholic Church or the government of his theory and was put under house arrest.
Two of the Galilean moons, Io and Europa, are among the most interesting bodies in our solar system. Io, Jupiter's closest moon, has constant volcanic activity because of the strong gravitational tides caused by Jupiter. The 2,200-mile wide moon, about as big as Earth's moon, is under constant torture as it's constantly be pulled and stretched, which generates interior heat and a molten core resulting in volcanic eruptions.
Late last month,The Magicshine bestcflbulbs bicycle light At 1000 lumens, now brighter and more energy efficient. they were separated by approximately 370 million miles, their closest face off for 2011 in what astronomers call opposition. Another reason Jupiter is extremely dazzling is that Jupiter is one monster of a planet, 88,000 miles in diameter, more than ten times the diameter of Earth. In fact,Some people are concerned that if they use bestcflbul or flashing lights on their bike they are breaking the law. if Jupiter was a hollow sphere, you easily fit more than 1,300 Earths inside it.
With even a small telescope or a decent pair of binoculars, you can see the disk of the planet and maybe even some of its cloud bands, especially the two dark ones on either side of the equator. What easily catches your eye, though, are up to four small star-like objects that accompany Jupiter. They're either to the left or right of Jupiter and they're constantly on the move from night to night. These are Jupiter's four brightest and biggest moons that obediently orbit Jupiter in periods of two to 17 days, all within two million miles of the Jovian planet.
The moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are constantly changing position relative to Jupiter and each other, and every night, you see they're arranged differently. Some nights, you can't see all four because one or more moons may be temporarily hiding behind the planet or passing front of it, camouflaged by Jupiter's brightly sunlit clouds.
What I think is really cool is when one of the moons is really close to the limb of Jupiter, so you can see it slip in back of or in front of the planet over the course of several hours. If you have a medium to large telescope,Purchase our bestcflbulbss System for 30% off ... you can sometimes see the shadow of the moon that happens to be crossing in front of Jupiter. It's just a tiny black dot, and it can be really tricky to see.
As I told you last week in Starwatch, you need to look at Jupiter through your telescope for continual stretches of at least 10 minutes to get used to the light levels through your scope. Quick glances just don't cut it most of the time.
There are many good sources on the Internet that keep you up-to-date with the arrangement of Jupiter's moons from night to night. The one I use is from Sky and Telescope Magazine.
Jupiter's four brightest moons are referred to as the Galilean moons because of the great astronomer Galileo, who saw them for the first time in 1610. Using his crude telescope to observe the moons, Galileo concluded from their night to night position changes that they were orbiting Jupiter.
He used these observations to help plead his case that the Earth and other planets like Jupiter were actually orbiting around the sun instead of the much held believe in an Earth-centered universe. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to persuade the Catholic Church or the government of his theory and was put under house arrest.
Two of the Galilean moons, Io and Europa, are among the most interesting bodies in our solar system. Io, Jupiter's closest moon, has constant volcanic activity because of the strong gravitational tides caused by Jupiter. The 2,200-mile wide moon, about as big as Earth's moon, is under constant torture as it's constantly be pulled and stretched, which generates interior heat and a molten core resulting in volcanic eruptions.
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