Jupiter "close", big, and bright

[MarkBC]

Not necessarily camping related...but outside-related:
"Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years"
Jupiter will be rising around sunset and setting around sunrise.
I'd noticed how bright Jupiter was recently, but hadn't heard that it was anything special until I read this story today.

Where I am, Bend, OR, it's gonna be cloudy/rainy/showery for the weekend+ (thunder/lightning/heavy-rain going on right now), so not a good time for bathing in Jupiter's light...but it's supposed to clear up by Tuesday morning.
And it'll be "close" and brighter than average for a while anyway.

 

[banderswipe]

Hi Mark, I have been watching Jupiter all summer, It comes up in the east and swings around to the west of course Uranus is right behind it but its to small to see with the naked eye. I am in Ontario Canada (southern) I see Sagittarius and Scorpio to the south with the star Arcturus and Boote's to the west. In the North of course Ursa Major and Minor and Cassiopeia. In the north east low down I see Andromeda.Straight up I see the Summer Triangle of Deneb the back end of Cygnus and Altair and Vega. I also see to the west Hercules but I havn't figured out his stars yet there not very bright. Do you see Sagittarius and Scorpio or are they to low in the sky.

Cheers,

Kevin.

 

[MarkBC]

Hi Mark, I have been watching Jupiter all summer, It comes up in the east and swings around to the west of course Uranus is right behind it but its to small to see with the naked eye. I am in Ontario Canada (southern) I see Sagittarius and Scorpio to the south with the star Arcturus and Boote's to the west. In the North of course Ursa Major and Minor and Cassiopeia. In the north east low down I see Andromeda.Straight up I see the Summer Triangle of Deneb the back end of Cygnus and Altair and Vega. I also see to the west Hercules but I havn't figured out his stars yet there not very bright. Do you see Sagittarius and Scorpio or are they to low in the sky.

Cheers,

Kevin.


Kevin - Sounds like you have your eye on the sky like I do.
Yes, we see all the constellations of the Zodiac from Bend's latitude of 44°N. Well...not right now -- it's cloudy-and-raining...but usually. We only get 12" of precip a year, so it's usually dry and mostly clear (unlike western Oregon). Years ago I took a vacation in New Zealand, and it was so cool to see the southern-hemisphere sky with stars/constellations that I'd never seen before, including the Magellanic Clouds.
When it clears up I'll take a gander through my binoculars to see if I can see Uranus...should be possible if I can hold them steady.
"Keep looking up!" (as the late Jack Horkheimer -- the Star Gazer -- used to say). - Mark

 

[John D]

Mark and Kevin, I was just outside. Even with the haze we have in Alabama, I can see 2 or 3 moons of Jupiter with a small pair of binoculars. Many do not know how easy it is to see Jupiter’s moons. In fact, they are just below the naked eye’s resolution. Get your binoculars out and try it. Jupiter is a little east of directly overhead right now (11:30 PM Central Time) and second in brightness only to the Moon. Steady the binoculars against some sort of solid rest. I was using the FWC because I have the binoculars in the truck. _John D

 

[MarkBC]

Yeah...it's a drag that it's cloudy/rainy here in central Oregon right now.
I just got a text message from a friend camped out by the Alvord Desert in eastern Oregon (where it's still clear ) raving about Jupiter.
Oh well...when the skies clear here in a couple days it will be the time of actual closest approach -- only 369,000,000 miles away!

 

[HERR42]

i was just up at Crater Lake (the miniature version in Cal, north of Chester) and when i got up at 3am for the nightly .....well....you know.....i saw it!

it was obviously bigger than anything else so i fired up the laptop used "stellarium" to figure out what it was.

impressive!


it was perfectly clear night, 7000 ft ele, and no moon. what a nice time to have to .... well....you know.

 

[highz]

Mark and Kevin, I was just outside. Even with the haze we have in Alabama, I can see 2 or 3 moons of Jupiter with a small pair of binoculars. Many do not know how easy it is to see Jupiter’s moons. In fact, they are just below the naked eye’s resolution. Get your binoculars out and try it. Jupiter is a little east of directly overhead right now (11:30 PM Central Time) and second in brightness only to the Moon. Steady the binoculars against some sort of solid rest. I was using the FWC because I have the binoculars in the truck. _John D



With Jupiter at opposition (as it is now), those moons should be well within the limits of the naked eye, but Jupiter's glare makes them hard to see.

I've been told that people with good eyesight and dark-adapted eyes can see the Galilean moons with the naked eye if they block out the light of Jupiter with, say, a very thin twig. I've never actually met anyone who has done this, though and I think it would be hard to keep both twig and head steady. My eyes aren't good enough to try this, I'm afraid.

 

[MarkBC]

With Jupiter at opposition (as it is now), those moons should be well within the limits of the naked eye, but Jupiter's glare makes them hard to see.

I've been told that people with good eyesight and dark-adapted eyes can see the Galilean moons with the naked eye if they block out the light of Jupiter with, say, a very thin twig. I've never actually met anyone who has done this, though and I think it would be hard to keep both twig and head steady. My eyes aren't good enough to try this, I'm afraid.


I'd never heard that this was possible...so I did a search and read some references about it that describe why it should be possible and that some people claim to have done so.
Still...it sounds like it's borderline enough that it's not surprising that you'd never meet anyone who's actually done it.
Even though my aging eyes need glasses for reading now, they're still better than 20/20 at distance so maybe I'll give it a shot...whenever the skies clear.
Maybe I'll drive up Pine Mt. to get a couple thousand feet closer to Jupiter.

 

[Ted]

i was just up at Crater Lake (the miniature version in Cal, north of Chester)

Herr, we were there over Labor Day weekend. The stars were impressive there. We carry a spotting scope for identifying birds and for star gazing. Not knowledgeable enough to know the names of most of them, but do enjoy looking.

 

[banderswipe]

i was just up at Crater Lake (the miniature version in Cal, north of Chester) and when i got up at 3am for the nightly .....well....you know.....i saw it!

it was obviously bigger than anything else so i fired up the laptop used "stellarium" to figure out what it was.

impressive!


it was perfectly clear night, 7000 ft ele, and no moon. what a nice time to have to .... well....you know.


Hi Herr42, Stellarium great piece of free software, It made finding the stars planets and constellations much easier.

http://www.stellarium.org/

Kevin.

 

[Steve Scearce]

My wife and I took a quick trip to Chaco Canyon over the weekend. While there, we went to an astronomy presentation by one of the rangers. There were three decent-sized telescopes set up and we were able to see Jupiter and it's four moons very clearly... despite the nearly 2/3 moon that was rising at the same time. Gotta get back there on a new moon night... and gotta get a telescope!

 

[John D]

Because so many of us frequently camp in areas where the sky is clear and bright we have better chances to test the possibility of observing Jupiter's moons with the naked eye. There are good articles on the internet about claims of doing this, plus suggestions on how to go about it. I was just outside trying some of this out. I could not make it work. From now on, I will be looking for Jupiter's moons with my natural eye when I am camping.

Chaco Canyon is the place to try. A professional astronomer showed up when we were there with a massive telescope that needed an 8 foot ladder to climb up to look through it. The guy was amazing. It was in February. I did not have the warm cloths I needed to stay out all night in Chaco Canyon looking at the stars. I nearly froze and had to go inside before I wanted to. _John D

 

[Ted]

Another popular spot for camping and star gazing is Grand View campground at the Brystlecone Pines National Monument in the White Mountains near bishop. It is common to see several large telescopes set up in camp.

 

[highz]

Astronomy and camping are a natural fit, obviously. If you want to get into serious stargazing, just about every city has an amateur astronomy club that loves to have visitors at their star parties. These clubs are great resources if you want to buy or build a telescope. There are several people on this site that I bet would enjoy "hogging out" their own telescope mirror. The more affluent clubs have their own observatories or dark sites for their star parties.


Some New Mexico links:

New Mexico State Parks does many astronomy-related events. You can look at the events calendar at:
http://www.emnrd.sta...ar/Default.aspx
Plus they offer nature walks, etc.

During the first week of October, there is the White Sands Star Party:
http://www.zianet.com/wssp/
This isn't free, but they usually open to the public for free one night.

But a warning to you that if you get "aperture fever", it can drain your wallet faster than your camping rig does. As for me, I do astronomy for a living, so when I go camping, I usually just take binoculars. I'm trying to get away from work