period planets.

[robgil]

anybody checking out jupiter tonight in the southern sky? you can also see four jovian moons as well.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1919735/jupiter_makes_close_approach_to_earth_tonight/

 

[Penners]

Those four moons are, of course, only the biggest ones - Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa (all discovered by Galileo four hundred years ago).

There are probably another 50 - 60 moons orbiting Jupiter, if you include captured asteroids.

 

[robgil]

very true , you can see it through binoculars , this is what it looks like through bins.

it doesnt look like much but when you think of it as a planet with moons orbiting it and you are seeing it in real life its quite something.

 

[JoceAndChris]

It's fascinating. I'd love one of those big telescope things for here.

 

[Penners]

Yes, yours would be a great spot for an observatory, Joce.

 

[Flyfisher]

it doesnt look like much but when you think of it as a planet with moons orbiting it and you are seeing it in real life its quite something.

Is it pedantic to point out we can't observe Jupiter "in real life", only as it looked between about 33 to 54 minutes ago?

I'll get my anorak

 

[robgil]

if we were to think that way then we are not observing anything in real life , not even things in the same room.
how long does it take light to travel from my telly to my couch?
and , here's the thing , if i walk backwards from my telly but keep staring at it does time slow down?

 

[Feltwell]

here's the thing , if i walk backwards from my telly but keep staring at it does time slow down?

No, but you do risk falling over the dog / child / tools and smacking your head against something, therefore causing you to miss a chunk of time.

Time is but an illusion, lunchtime doubly so, as I think Douglas Adams once said.

("Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana" - my personal favourite time quote. Groucho Marx I think).

 

[robgil]

but surely if i were to go backwards faster than light my telly would seem to be showing things in reverse?
a bad example i suppose as i would need on massive huge living room.

ive been out with my telescope again and yes Jupiter is still there , best viewed around 12 ish but 10 pm will get good results , i feel a Patric Moore coming on.

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/patrick+moore/

 

[Alex]

Thanks for that, I have been out and had a look, I didn't expect it to look so bright.

 

[Flyfisher]

but surely if i were to go backwards faster than light my telly would seem to be showing things in reverse?

Not really because, as I understand things, you can't go faster than light. The faster you move, the heavier you get and at the speed of light you'd have an infinite mass which would, of course, require and infinite force to accelerate.

But, even if you were Scotty and could rig up some sort of dilithium-powered warp drive that would enable you to go backwards faster than the light from your telly, then you'd still need a bl**dy great telescope to view your telly from a few million miles away.

 

[Flyfisher]

("Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana" - my personal favourite time quote. Groucho Marx I think).

Yes, Groucho Marx. One of my all-time favourite quotes as well.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

but surely if i were to go backwards faster than light my telly would seem to be showing things in reverse?

I also thought general relativity (E=MC2) suggested that this was not possible - that to accelerate something with mass to the speed of light would require impossible levels of energy? Or did I bunk off that physics lesson? I probably did - I was trying to get into close orbit with a couple of heavenly bodies at that time! :roll:

ive been out with my telescope again and yes Jupiter is still there , best viewed around 12 ish but 10 pm will get good results

Grrr - I have a great telescope here, but it's overcast....

 

[Feltwell]

you'd still need a bl**dy great telescope to view your telly from a few million miles away.

Nah - not if you've nicked the bloody great £1800 one from my work! :wink:

Grrr - I have a great telescope here, but it's overcast....

Of course it is - you're in Wales man, for heavens sake! Be thankful it's not raining. :wink:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I'm not sure if the people at Sky have actually cracked relativity, but I just checked and I can get my Sky+ to go backwards and it didn't require infinite levels of energy or mass to achieve - just a moderately large-sized lounge. 8)

OK - I'm off to drag the telescope outside and try and peer through the clouds - they're fairly thin.

 

[robgil]

i know faster than light is debatable but , if for some strange reason i did just happen to go backwards one day , away from my telly faster than light then stopped again before i ended up next door , for a very very small moment of time , my telly would run backwards.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Rob - thanks so much for the Jupiter tip. Just been out. Absolutely incredible view - was worried as it quite close to moon which is getting brighter and larger just now, that I wouldn't see much.

Saw 4 pin sharp moons, pinky orange colour in planet I'm sure and the ring (or at least the shadow of it) was clearly visible.

Fantastic - never seen a planet so large before. Beautiful.

Will prep the kids (7&10) and wake them tomorrow night for a view. Who cares if they're asleep in school the next morning - they'll have seen a planet in (almost!) real time!

 

[robgil]

i can see the ring also , although its clouded over now. the four moons really do look spectacular , apparently with a decent telescope you can see the swirling storms in the planets atmosphere.

 

[MdB]

My small pair of low quality binoculars weren't up to the job. I could just see a blob that wasn't anything like round due to poor optics. No signs of moons either :-(

There was a bit of haze so that probably wasn't helping.

 

[Flyfisher]

i know faster than light is debatable but , if for some strange reason i did just happen to go backwards one day , away from my telly faster than light then stopped again before i ended up next door , for a very very small moment of time , my telly would run backwards.

Not the actual telly of course, just your perception of it.

The sky was very clear here last night and Jupiter was clearly visible, along with a very clear, bright moon. Unfortunately, I had no magnification devices to hand so couldn't see the moons.

And full marks to FW for waking the kids - such things are important. When FF jnr was, er, junior, we went to a number of autumn open evenings at Bayfordbury Observatory. Wonderful stuff.