Jupiters minor moons

[Paul81]

Hi All,

Does anyone know of any software (the free'er the better..) that shows the positions of Jupiter's minor moons?

We named our dog Elara, after one of the minor astroid type moons of Jupiter. I thought it would be a fun (!!) project to try and capture it with a long exposure. Trouble is it will just be a vague dot, so I would need software to help identify and predict when its best to try and get a snap.

Sad huh?!

[lukebl]

Not sad at all. Personally, I find the minor moons and asteroids fascinating!

I've captured Himalia and Elara quite easily. Himalia is the brightest minor moon at 15th mag, and Elara is around 17th. I use the NASA Horizons website to get the co-ordinates and feed them manually into Carte du Ciel. Sky Safari Pro on the Ipad also shows their positions accurately. Not sure if the latest version of Carte du Ciel also has their positions.

This was a capture of Himalia. Single 60 second exposure with my SXVF-H9 cam and 250mm f/4.7 Newtonian.

[Paul81]

Hi Luke, many thanks for the information! I like the captures! I agree, the minor stuff often seems overlooked and has its own fascinations and charms.

One more question for you, what focal length were you operating at? I am guessing you had a barlow or similar in place given the scale of Jupiter in the picture?

[lukebl]

Paul, the focal length was 1200mm. No Barlow. Jupiter looks big because it was hopelessly overexposed, being so bright with a 1-minute exposure. The actual disc of Jupiter would be pretty small if you could see it.

[Paul81]

Ah that makes sense! Just been running some data through the Nasa Horizons website and (today anyway) Elara is quite a distance from Jupiter - sufficient that the planet or any of the major moons and Elara do not fit in the FOV of my Lodestar (and 10" reflector). I'll have to run through the data and chart the orbit to see if there is a time when the moon is a bit closer to get a decent reference in the picture.

Thanks again for the info!

[Scooot]

Sky safari pro does. It's not cheap though.

[riklaunim]

Stelarium shows mini-moon location, but the ephemeris may not always be accurate (small, rarely checked object). I did capture Amalthea twice, and plausibly other inner-mini moons too. I've also seen some widefield pictures from Germany showing outer mini moons. To catch inner moons you need few AVIs with good focus and exposure set to bit above Jupiter over-exposure and gain close to max or max. Then you stretch the image a lot in post processing and you check if there is a brighter dot in the area where the moon should be. Multiple AVIs give confirmation that this isn't a single frame flux, but a moon (or a space station )