Jupiter
Last Saturday, just before midnight, I got a phone call. Barring an emergency, it was probably the only person that would call me that late - my brother. After establishing that, yes, I was awake (I was just getting ready to crawl into bed), he tells me that I need to come out and see Jupiter. He's got a nice telescope and an even nicer mount. It's the kind that once it's polar aligned with the north star, you can use a controller to type in an object's Messier ID and the mount will move the telescope to the proper position for viewing. It also tracks the object through the sky so you don't have to keep adjusting as the Earth rotates. Of course, Jupiter is hard to pass up. I tossed on some warmer clothes and went out to his house to take a look.
Just looking with the naked eye, it looked like a very bright star - it was pretty hard to miss - but my brother had a light pollution filter on so that cut back on the intensity of the light as well as tinted the planet green. Through the telescope, you could see the cloud bands across the planet and 4 of it's moons - 3 lined up on one side and 1 a ways off to the other side. Perhaps those were the Galilean moons?
I also got to see Neptune, which just looked like a bright blue star; the Swan Nebula, which really does resemble a swan; and Antares, which is a redish-orangish star in Scorpio. It was too late to see Mars or the Andromeda Galaxy. They were already past the horizon. We also looked for Pluto, but it was impossible to distinguish which tiny dot of light was the plutoid against the blanket of stars in the view finder.
To see that much detail when looking at Jupiter as just amazing. Definately worth missing a few hours of sleep for.
Oh, and lets not forget that coming up in about a month is the Perseid Meteor Shower. Let's hope for clear skies.
Just looking with the naked eye, it looked like a very bright star - it was pretty hard to miss - but my brother had a light pollution filter on so that cut back on the intensity of the light as well as tinted the planet green. Through the telescope, you could see the cloud bands across the planet and 4 of it's moons - 3 lined up on one side and 1 a ways off to the other side. Perhaps those were the Galilean moons?
I also got to see Neptune, which just looked like a bright blue star; the Swan Nebula, which really does resemble a swan; and Antares, which is a redish-orangish star in Scorpio. It was too late to see Mars or the Andromeda Galaxy. They were already past the horizon. We also looked for Pluto, but it was impossible to distinguish which tiny dot of light was the plutoid against the blanket of stars in the view finder.
To see that much detail when looking at Jupiter as just amazing. Definately worth missing a few hours of sleep for.
Oh, and lets not forget that coming up in about a month is the Perseid Meteor Shower. Let's hope for clear skies.