Jupiter is in opposition

I enjoy doing all my posts, but this one has been even more fun to do than most of them. It has given me the chance to explore the night sky, learn a little astronomy, although strictly speaking, I ought to say planetology, and experiment with the limits of my camera, in which I am well pleased.  

I read last month that Jupiter would be in opposition on August 20, 2021. Being retired, and having little else to do, I knew that I would be free to take some pictures that night. Unfortunately, we got rain. By the 22nd though, the sky had cleared up once again. The palm trees were still wet from earlier showers, but at least I could see the sky. I grabbed my camera and hoped for the best. 

But first of all, what does it mean that Jupiter is in opposition?

It means that the sun, earth and Jupiter are positioned in a straight line. When celestial objects are directly opposite the sun, they appear brighter in the sky. (no surprise there) And, because Jupiter will be near to its closest approach to the earth for this year, it will appear very slightly larger to us.    

Let me start by showing you what I saw the night of the 22nd. Sorry for the camera movement in this picture. I hadn't settled down yet. You can see from the reflection on the palms how wet it still is, and look at that haze around the moon.  

 That's Jupiter to the left.  

I started zooming in on it...and then...

I hadn't realized, when I started my project to photograph Jupiter, that I would be able to see its moons. Imagine my surprise then, when I zoomed in on that planet, as tiny flickers of light near it resolved into what I realized were moons.  I was very pleased.  

I should clarify something.  According to Wikipedia, Jupiter has 80 moons, and even a bunch of 'moonlets,' all whizzing around it. The four largest are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.  

If you'll take another look back at the photo, you'll notice that it appears there are only three visible. Well, I suppose one could be hiding either in front or behind the planet at present, or, and this is what seems apparent to me, two are passing one another.  Look at this next shot.

I blew the picture up a bit.  

I'm pretty sure that that moon in the lower right is actually two of them.  Is that cool or what? 

The next night, the 23rd, I took a few more pictures. They appear below. I have blown each of them up to about the same size as the first one.  The first one was taken at 9:11 and the second at 10:59

I took this next shot just before I called it quits for the night. I was tired and again had some trouble with camera shake. 

This one shows the moon, Jupiter next at about 10 o'clock from the moon and Saturn, at about 10 o'clock from Jupiter. Jupiter is right now, about 385 million miles from the earth. Saturn is about 746 million miles from us. Since Saturn was up there, I decided I would try to get a look at it as well.  

This is the best I could do.   

I wish it were clearer. The humidity was 64% that night. Oh well, that just means that I have something to shoot for in the future. I'll get back to you when I get something better.  

And, since we're talking planets, I might as well show you another that was hanging around in the west while I was shooting Jupiter.  

That's Venus, just over The Ferns. I'm taking the picture from Rosecourt. 

I've been trying every night since the 23rd, to take further pictures. Unfortunately, the clouds have prevented it. I did get J. and one of its moons very dimly on the 26th, but more rain has moved in and will be with us for several days.  

I hope to be able to get lots more pictures of Jupiter. As it moves farther away though, relative to Earth, and appears less directly lighted to us, I may find it more difficult. I'll keep you posted in any event.    -djf