Starship Asterisk*

Moon Meets Jupiter

Explanation: What's that next to the Moon? Jupiter -- and its four largest moons. Skygazers around planet Earth enjoyed the close encounter of planets and Moon in 2012 July 15's predawn skies. And while many saw bright Jupiter next to the slender, waning crescent, Europeans also had the opportunity to watch the ruling gas giant pass behind the lunar disk, occulted by the Moon as it slid through the night. Clouds threaten in this telescopic view from Montecassiano, Italy, but the frame still captures Jupiter after it emerged from the occultation along with all four of its large Galilean moons. The sunlit crescent is overexposed with the Moon's night side faintly illuminated by Earthshine. Lined up left to right beyond the dark lunar limb are Callisto, Ganymede, Jupiter, Io, and Europa. In fact, Callisto, Ganymede, and Io are larger than Earth's Moon, while Europa is only slightly smaller. Last week, NASA's Juno became the second spacecraft ever to orbit Jupiter.

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Nice picture. Note the very subtle colors. The night side of the Moon is very slightly grayish-blue, due to the overall slightly bluish color of the reflected light of the Earth. The daylight side of the Moon, as well as the color of Jupiter, is slightly yellowish, due to the slightly reddish color of these worlds.

Slightly!

Ann

P.S. Oh, and the lineup of the Jovian moons is splendid. They don't always line up so perfectly. Sometimes one moon is seemingly far away from the others, and sometimes one moon is completely hidden behind Jupiter.

There is one star visible; it would be nice to know which star it is.

heehaw wrote:There is one star visible; it would be nice to know which star it is.

That would be the ever popular HIP 20349, a 7.8 magnitude star in Taurus.

Chris Peterson wrote:That would be the ever popular HIP 20349, a 7.8 magnitude star in Taurus.

I thought the SINBAD fluxes list is about the magnitude, with V for visual, that lists 6.779 ±0.005, so 6.8 rounded. Or is it more complex than that?

heehaw wrote:There is one star visible; it would be nice to know which star it is.

There are more, e.g. left of the moon (9-10 o'clock position), about 1/3 moon diameter further out, much fainter though in Fattinnanzi’s image. It seems lucky that the Jupiter system in this image is precisely in an unobstructed (as for clouds) part of the sky. According to Stellarium's magnitude listings, the two visible stars could have been as bright as Callisto, or vise versa: the clouds could have dimmed Callisto to nearly invisible.

This photo is surprisingly popular on Facebook. People really love it.

Wow... So Cool... I have shot of Jupiter Moons, but not OUR Moon with it...

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Case wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:That would be the ever popular HIP 20349, a 7.8 magnitude star in Taurus.

I thought the SINBAD fluxes list is about the magnitude, with V for visual, that lists 6.779 ±0.005, so 6.8 rounded. Or is it more complex than that?

No, it's as simple as my accidentally hitting the "7" instead of the "6" when I typed in the V magnitude. My intent was 6.8.

Well, that's your one typo for the year that you're allowed, Chris.

geckzilla wrote:Well, that's your one typo for the year that you're allowed, Chris.

Okay, I'll do my berst.