Jupiter Already In The Northern Sky

If you are interested in astronomy, then there's a treat in the night sky at the time. Jupiter, the largest of the planets, is the brightest object in the southern sky during the hours of darkness.

Jupiter shows many details on your disk when viewed through a typical backyard telescope. Usually, with two prominent bands, north and south of the equator, south band has almost disappeared in recent months. The south side attenuation means that the great red spot of Jupiter is even more important on the planet. This is a huge storm that will swallow the Earth several times and has been seen on Jupiter quality telescopes were reported for the first time on the planet. "Day" Jupiter takes just under 10 hours, so if you look at Jupiter in a few hours you will see the red spot moving across the planet as it rotates.

Galileo was the first to turn a telescope at Jupiter in 1609. However, his instrument was very poor compared to the telescopes available today for the amateur astronomer. Point binoculars at Jupiter and you will see four small "stars" near Jupiter, along the equatorial plane of the planet. These are four main satellites of Jupiter. larger telescopes show the shadows of the moons as they move across the face of Jupiter.

Jupiter was also the scene of an impact of a comet in 1994, when the Shoemaker / Levy 9 comet was torn apart by the gravitational pull of Jupiter and about 20 fragments bulleted its way into the atmosphere of Jupiter. Leaving the clouds long black debris on top of the clouds of Jupiter, they were first observed impacts already happening in real time on another planet.

The story was repeated in July 2009, when an amateur astronomer in Australia found another tell-tale black spot above the clouds of Jupiter. Infrared Telescope NASA (Hawaii) was facing Jupiter to investigate and confirmed that the dark spot was in fact the result of another shock, probably of a small asteroid.

In all, Jupiter is one of the most interesting and spectacular sights in the night sky. It is well placed for Northern Hemisphere observers during the next two years, so if you are in astrophotography (taking pictures of objects in the night sky), then coming months offer great opportunities for pictures Jupiter taken and the changes that will arise.