Just about ten minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve, I was in the back garden of my sister’s house in Dublin, showing my nephew how to use the new telescope I had gotten him. We were in luck – the sky was clear and there were many stars visible. We decided to pick on one of the brightest objects in the sky and pointed the scope at it. It was the planet Jupiter, and, through the scope, my nephew was able to view not just the planet but also the four largest moons for the first time – Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
View Jupiter’s moons is a good way to start astronomy, since the planet is easy to find and you get a sense of scale when looking at the planet and the tiny moons beside it.There is another reason too – it was one of the first astronomical discoveries made by Galileo when he turned his newly developed telescope to the heavens. His telescope wasn’t that powerful – and you can see it today in the Science Museum in Florence (the top picture is a snap I took of it there some years ago). Jupiter and the moons do not require a telescope to see either – a pair of binoculars or a powerful camera telephoto lens will also do the trick (the picture of the planet and moons above was taken with a 100-400mm telephoto lens).
Galileo first saw Jupiter’s moons on this date in 1610.
If you are interested in astronomy, the Galway Astronomy Club will host their annual festival on February 1st here in Galway.
[1]Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza (aka museo galileo)