Jupiter and one moon larger than the others

[FirstStar19]

I took several pictures of Jupiter Saturday night. On about 10 of them It looks like one of the moons on the left is alot bigger than the others or is it something else. It kind of looks like a planet. Can someone tell me what this is please? I'm going to put them on my album. Thanks

FirstStar19

[GazOC]

I think it might be a bit of dust on your camera/ optics.

[The Warthog]

Ganymede is the largestmoon, at just over 5.000 km, Callisto is a little smaller, and Io and Europa are in the 3,000 km range. So, one of the moons may appear larger because it is.

[FirstStar19]

did you see my pictures? What moon is that on the left of Jupiter that you see then? Why does it move within a minute and half when I took about 8 pictures? That was the only one that moved. That is whats confusing me. I knew at all this.

Thanks so much.

[lukebl]

I'd say it was an internal reflection of Jupiter itself somewhere in the optics.

Regards,

Luke

[JimBobs63]

Hi,

Just had a look at the images. I'm no expert but I would say that it looks much too large relative to Jupiter itself to be a moon, and it's lack of brightness would suggest it's not "out there" but perhaps "in there" - i.e. as previously suggested it is inside your scope, whether it be dust or an internal reflection or other artifact.

Best Wishes,

Jim

[David Galvin]

Assuming that you took the images around 11:37 UT (GMT) on the 3rd October then the jovian moons are (from left to right) Ganymede, (Jupiter) Europa and Io. Callisto was further out to the left of your image. Perhaps you may have observed on the same night. I have to agree with others that I think that the 'object' is just a reflection from Jupiter but a good image all the same.

[David Galvin]

'Assuming that you took the images around 11:37 UT (GMT) on the 3rd October'

I think that the time may have been 04:52 U.T (GMT) minus five hours for Tennessee. So did you observe around midnight? I have now gone and confused myself.

[FirstStar19]

I took several of them at 8:00 pm central time. What is confusing me is that I had a remote on my camera but the thing on the left moved in every photo.

[David Galvin]

It is just the way reflections appear to move in the 'scope. If Jupiter or a bright star is moving from right to left then the reflection moves from left to right.

Regarding the time of your observation, I used this site

to convert 20:00 CDT to UT (GMT) and it came up with the following:

(U.S.A. - Tennessee) Saturday, 3 October 2009, 20:00:00 CDT

=Sunday, 4 October 2009, 01:00:00 UTC

The position of Jupiter and its moons is shown below.

[FirstStar19]

Thank you all so much. This is all so new for me.

[David Galvin]

Thank you all so much. This is all so new for me.

It's fun though, is'nt it.

[Dazraz]

I'd say it was an internal reflection of Jupiter itself somewhere in the optics.

Regards,

Luke

I agree !

[FirstStar19]

I love all this. I can't get enough. I just get so frustrated when I try to get pictures and they don't work. I spend so much time outside. I think I need to spend the money on a different camera.

What do you all think?

What is a great camera for not tons of money?