Jupiter, I see you and your little friends
We have a couple of telescopes in our home. Usually they stored in the basement since my home isn't well suited for stargazing due to the large amount of light pollution the city puts out and rather obscured view. It is certainly not worth setting up the large telescope unless I plan to travel somewhere remote. Still the small telescope is, well small, co I can have it on a table on the balcony.
Last night the moon was almost full so I figure it would be fun to observe. However I noticed, closely trailing behind, was Jupiter. Jupiter is pretty interesting, it is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, Moon, and Venus), or the fifth brightest if you count the International Space Station. Even if you cannot see much of anything else in the night sky, ol’ Jupiter will be there. Well I have honestly never viewed Jupiter through a telescope before, even a smaller one, so I turned my attention towards that bright point in the moonlit heavens.
After much moving around, we finally managed to resolve Jupiter, which at 60 times magnification, appears as a very small, bright white sphere, still too small to resolve the clouds or color on the planet. However what I did manage to spot was all four Galilean moons at once, which was quite a sight. Admittedly, they were simply tiny points of light, but their actions clearly indicated these were the four large moons of Jupiter. I was fortunate all four were in a position to seen along the planet.
I couldn't help but think of Galileo Galilei, who was the first to observe Jupiter through a telescope back in 1610, and was the first to see these same four small dots, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. At first he believed them to be dim stars, but after several days of observation, he came to the inevitable conclusion they orbited Jupiter. It was a shocking discovery, so much so that his peers simply at first, refused to believe him. As such observations did not conform to the principles of Aristotelian Cosmology, which demanded all heavenly bodies orbit the earth in perfect circles. In that respect it was a tremendous discovery as suddenly, the accept cosmology of the universe was turned on its head.
Of course as major of an event as the discovery of the moons was, the real shocker was when he observed Venus later that year, and discovered, like the Moon, it exhibited a full set of phases. This didn't necessary prove the Heliocentric model of Copernicus, but it was irrefutable evidence that Venus orbited the Sun. Further disproving the Aristotelian model of the cosmos that held sway over astronomy for almost fifteen centuries.
I could only imagine what that must have been like while I was watching those same four small points of light slowing moving across Jupiter. To know that same scene, through another small telescope 400 years before, changed the course of astronomy and our understanding of the universe.
Last night the moon was almost full so I figure it would be fun to observe. However I noticed, closely trailing behind, was Jupiter. Jupiter is pretty interesting, it is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, Moon, and Venus), or the fifth brightest if you count the International Space Station. Even if you cannot see much of anything else in the night sky, ol’ Jupiter will be there. Well I have honestly never viewed Jupiter through a telescope before, even a smaller one, so I turned my attention towards that bright point in the moonlit heavens.
After much moving around, we finally managed to resolve Jupiter, which at 60 times magnification, appears as a very small, bright white sphere, still too small to resolve the clouds or color on the planet. However what I did manage to spot was all four Galilean moons at once, which was quite a sight. Admittedly, they were simply tiny points of light, but their actions clearly indicated these were the four large moons of Jupiter. I was fortunate all four were in a position to seen along the planet.
I couldn't help but think of Galileo Galilei, who was the first to observe Jupiter through a telescope back in 1610, and was the first to see these same four small dots, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. At first he believed them to be dim stars, but after several days of observation, he came to the inevitable conclusion they orbited Jupiter. It was a shocking discovery, so much so that his peers simply at first, refused to believe him. As such observations did not conform to the principles of Aristotelian Cosmology, which demanded all heavenly bodies orbit the earth in perfect circles. In that respect it was a tremendous discovery as suddenly, the accept cosmology of the universe was turned on its head.
Of course as major of an event as the discovery of the moons was, the real shocker was when he observed Venus later that year, and discovered, like the Moon, it exhibited a full set of phases. This didn't necessary prove the Heliocentric model of Copernicus, but it was irrefutable evidence that Venus orbited the Sun. Further disproving the Aristotelian model of the cosmos that held sway over astronomy for almost fifteen centuries.
I could only imagine what that must have been like while I was watching those same four small points of light slowing moving across Jupiter. To know that same scene, through another small telescope 400 years before, changed the course of astronomy and our understanding of the universe.