Jupiter 15th sept between 12 and 3am 2012

[simon]

hi everyone :-)

at the risk of embarrassing myself, i'm wondering if anyone could help me identify what i'm seeing

i was viewing jupiter last night and saw all 4 moons with detail on jupiter, it looked fab. anyway that aside. i saw something to the top right of jupiter . not very bright ive drawn a picture, what do you think it is? a star?

i saw a simular one last week to the bottom left of my view looked as bright as the moons which has now gone, using a 25mm + x2 barlow.

what do you think?

[Dipper]

Jupiter is now in Taurus and there are a lot of stars in the area. However it doesn't look like there are stars brighter than Jupiter's four main moons all of whom are in the region of 5th - 6th magnitude. Knowing that, Jupiter's brightness might make the 5-6 mag moons appear different than 5-6 mag stars would. The brightest nearby stars are mostly 10 magnitude or so.

[Josh Wilson]

I saw the exact same thing this morning except it was directly above Jupiter probably because of my latitude. I thought it was another moon that was appearing because of my new scope and it was just a moon that is only visible with a certain aperture telescope because of its magnitude. Guess not. At least you know you're not alone now.

[Stu]

Hi Simon, I was observing at almost exactly the same time as you, your sketch is actually a pretty accurate representation of where everything was placed

The object you are taking about is a background star. The only moons if Jupiter which are visible with amateur kit are the four Galilean moons so you can be sure anything else is a background star which Jupiter is passing in front of - it is a line of sight effect.

Did you see the GRS? It was appearing gradually as I looked, don't think it got to the meridian until later on though. Was looking big but pale.

Cheers

Stu

[simon]

I saw the exact same thing this morning except it was directly above Jupiter probably because of my latitude. I thought it was another moon that was appearing because of my new scope and it was just a moon that is only visible with a certain aperture telescope because of its magnitude. Guess not. At least you know you're not alone now.

any idea what it is ? gonna check it out again tonight if the clouds clear, ill post where i can see it again if its there.

i'm using a 10" skywatcher dobsonian.

[simon]

Hi Simon, I was observing at almost exactly the same time as you, your sketch is actually a pretty accurate representation of where everything was placed

The object you are taking about is a background star. The only moons if Jupiter which are visible with amateur kit are the four Galilean moons so you can be sure anything else is a background star which Jupiter is passing in front of - it is a line of sight effect.

Did you see the GRS? It was appearing gradually as I looked, don't think it got to the meridian until later on though. Was looking big but pale.

Cheers

Stu

hi BigMakStutov

thanks , im sure your right :-)

i didnt see the GRS. i did most of my viewing through my 25mm with x2 barlow. i could see the bands but that was about it.

just finished looking tonight, and saw the star in the same place plus a faint one to the left now.

cant wait to get my new eyepices so i can look closer. :-)

[Stu]

Good stuff Simon.

Aim to get ep's which give you in the range of x150 to x180 for Jupiter, that seems to be the sweet spot to show the best detail. The features are quite low contrast so too much mag doesn't necessarily show you more.

Stu

[simon]

Good stuff Simon.

Aim to get ep's which give you in the range of x150 to x180 for Jupiter, that seems to be the sweet spot to show the best detail. The features are quite low contrast so too much mag doesn't necessarily show you more.

Stu

thanks BigMakStutov