jupiter 23-11-09 at 1800

[astropete]

this is my first ever pic of jupiter and i am pleased that the four main moons are on show. its not hubble or of any good standard, but it is my first.

scope 127mm sky watcher auto guide, 20mm e/p. camera samsung nv4 8mp.

[astropete]

for got to add if you enlarge the pic to 400% and scroll right, i am sure one of those "blobs" of light may be neptune, if so can you please confirm.

[creeker]

Hi

I see 3 of Jupiter's moons. With the field of view of your image, Neptune could not be in that field. Last night Neptune was about 3 1/2 degrees west of Jupiter. Thanks for posting your image

regards

Ed

[creeker]

Hi

I see 4 of Jupiter's moons. With the field of view of your image, Neptune could not be in that field. Last night Neptune was about 3 1/2 degrees west of Jupiter. Thanks for posting your image

regards

Ed

[astropete]

hi ed, thanks for your comments, the object can be seen if you enlarge the pic to 400% and scroll right. there are four patches of light and i do hope that one of them may be neptune, as ive never seen neptune. fingers crossed.

[creeker]

Hi

I wish I could tell you it is Neptune but it's not. The 4 blobs of light that you are seeing are 4 of Jupiter's moons in a line. The angular span from the uper most moon and the lower right hand one is less than 1/2 degree. At this time, Neptune is about 3.4 degrees away from Jupiter. Neptune could not be in that image. If you tell me the date and time you took the image, I came tell the names of the moons visable in your image.

regards

Ed

[astropete]

you have to expand the pic to 400% then scroll to the right, so as you look at jupiter the objects are to its left. the main picture shows jupiter and its moons. hi ed the pic was taken on 23-11-09 at 1800

[astropete]

this may help, ive increased the sharpness of the original pic. noe the points of light i am on about are to the left of jupiter as you look at the screen, about 4-5 jupiter diameters away.

[ashenlight]

Hello astropete

Congratulations on a great image, the moons look lovely lined up like that

I would have to agree with other posters and conclude that there is no way that Neptune is in this image. Neptune is too far away from Jupiter to be in that shot. Aswell as this, Neptune can be found (relatively) easily at the moment, because it sits near a distinctive line of three stars found in the constellation of Capricornus.

Not only are those few blobs of light in your photo too close to Jupiter to be Neptune, that distinctive shape of stars that makes Neptune so easy to find, is nowhere to be seen.

I hope this answers your questions and congratulations again on a lovely image of the gas giant with his moons To find out which moons they are, use this Javascript utility - click on the red link near the top of that page and it'll open in a new window. I've input the date and time you took your image of Jupiter and it is telling me that the moons that are visible are, in order from the top, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto

Why not use a star map to find the three stars I mention, and try to take an image of Neptune for yourself? I'm not sure how it would come out with your equipment, but you'll pick up those three stars for definite. Here's a screenshot from Stellarium for you, to help you find it - Neptune is just within that red cross like shape. You could try bagging it with your scope visually, or with binoculars first I could make it out with averted vision with my 10x50 binos and it was quite obviously blue at low mag with my 5" reflector.

Happy snapping and keep the images coming

[astropete]

thank you amanda for your time in resolving this issue. i truly thought i had neptune in my sights, ah well next time maybe.

[ashenlight]

That is no problem at all there's always next time, you're right.

[Taff]

Hi Pete' Thats a nice capture with it's moons.Mark

[Doc]

Have looked at Stellarium and agree with others that they are stars one is TYC6361-482-1 at 11.8 mag and the other 13.2 cannot locate name.

Great capture by the way.