I just wanted to tell as many people as would care, and realised that this forum probably held the greatest number of those, although we are almost total strangers, about my first time.

No, not that, it's totally safe for work.

Friday night, as I was walking to my front door, I noticed that Jupiter was really bright (I work until about eleven PM), and thought that I just had to take out my telescope for a look. Now, I've had the 'scope for a year, but have only used it to look at the Moon, Venus, and random star-fields. Jupiter was just too obvious to pass up.

I should have mentioned that it's a small beginner's 'scope, so my expectations were quite restrained. I took it outside, fiddled and nudged, got frustrated, but decided that I was too sweaty at that point to quit (I live in Gainesville, Florida, so during the Spring, Summer, and most of the Fall, the temperature rarely drops below eighty, even at night, and the humidity is never less than seventy percent).

Finally, I was able to focus in on the big planet, and I was amazed that it was larger in my viewfinder than Venus. I was still being impressed by that when I realised that I could discern a quartet of lights in a neat little line.

I saw the (largest) moons of Jupiter!

I know that this is kid's stuff in astronomy, but it is the first time I've seen it, and I have been following astronomy since my dad showed me the Moon in a telephoto lens. I've just never had the means to see something like this.

I'm waiting for another clear night so I can track the motion of the moons, as well as try to get my kids to stay up long enough to join me.

I hope that they will be as impressed by the wonders of the universe as I was when I saw the features of the Lunar surface with my own, young eyes.

Also, I am making sketches to track the motions, just to show that science relies on the repeatable. I will repeat the observations of Galileo, which at the time, stood the solar system on its head.

Woot!

Autumn

Welcome aboard!

Good news, Jupiter rises earlier and and earlier, so it won't be long until the kids won't have to stay up late!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

On to Saturn!

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Actually, I have really bad horizons from my yard, so I only have a few weeks until the trees gobble up Jupiter. Then, school starts, so I can't keep them up too late.
Still, just letting them know about these things is what I live for. I remember my oldest stepson telling me that during a first-grade science class he told his teacher that the air on Jupiter was like Windex (I had grabbed the first image I could think of that he would be familiar with-ammonia, some water, various trace elements). The fact that he had remembered was a point in my life that I will remember well into senility.

I am in love with my children, if for no other reason than their curiosity. It reminds me every day that I not only know far less than I think, but that the little I know can impart the seeking of knowledge that may give all of humanity more.

I remember my first time seeing the Moons of Jupiter- Through Binocs!

It truly is thrilling for illogical and unfathomable reasons...


I love being human sometimes...

I saw Halley's Comet through binocs, and it was dissappointing to everyone but me! I saw a little bit of sludge (whenever I think of a comet I think of the side-of-the-road slush left by the snow-plows), but I knew that it was millions of miles away! It rocked (or iced)!

That reason is fathomable: we can know.

We can seek, we can find.

We may be wrong a majority of the time, but we admit it, and allow ourselves to be shown to be wrong. If it happens that one of us is correct, it is scrutinized, eyeballed, and felt-up. We are only as correct as our observations indicate. The instant that our pet theory is shown to be lacking, it is either modified or abandoned.

That is what makes us special: we can be wrong, but we can change.

For some reason, its always more exciting "in the flesh" than in a photo. I don't know why !
Anyways, sounds like you've been bitten by the Astronomy bug now. Hope your credit card is in good shape

Unfortunately, Saturn will be particularly unimpressive for the next couple of years, as we pass through the ring plane.

__________________
Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

My first time seeing the moons of Jupiter was a week and a half ago at my astronomy club's observatory. It was amazing--I could actually make out Jupiter's cloud bands. I then mounted new binoculars I had just received for my birthday on a tripod, and we were able to see all four of Jupiter's moons although one was very faint. It was so exciting that I didn't pay attention to all the mosquitoes around us, and since I was wearing shorts and we were near a pond, I came home with legs full of bites. But the experience was definitely worth it.

When I first got a telescope when I was in high school (many, many years ago, though I think we had electricity at the time), a couple of things that I remember are: (1) the excitement of seeing Jupiter and Saturn for the first time. They really are awesome sights; and (2) the disappointment of seeing M31 for the first time and only seeing a cloud (I had a poster of it, and it looked really cool).

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As above, so below

One was on one side of Jupiter, the other three on the other side, right?

I just noticed, from Skymap, that a 7th degree star has joined the group, not in the line. A tiny fifth moon.

Actually, the night before I posted I noted three to one side, but the third night after I saw two moons on each side. I don't know if they revolve that fast, or if I am seeing things. I also am not in a great area for viewing, but I am aware that there are four visible moons. I expect that my observations could easily be byproducts of my brain trying to see four distinct moons, and substituting mistakes (dim stars, imagination, random retinal misfires) for the reality.
Doesn't matter much, as I still know that I saw some moons, and I am gibbering like an idiot to anyone who will listen that Jupiter is that big bright spot over there, and you should break out a pair of binoculars and look at it!

Yes, the moons do orbit that fast! The periods range from 1.8 days (Io) to 16.7 days (Callisto). Pick up a copy of Sky and Telescope or Astronomy. They both have monthly charts of the daily positions of the moons.

__________________
Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

See if you can find an image of Galileo's drawings of the moons as he watched them. They all orbit in a matter of days, and you can watch the positions change from night to night (or hour to hour if you're lucky).