For the last 4 nights or so, my son Danny and I have been enjoying the night sky as part of a project he's doing for school. Every night at the same time we look at Jupiter with binoculars(10x50) and observe the locations of it's 4 largest moons. Io(the only known planetary body besides Earth with active volcanoes), Europa(an icy wasteland, very reflective), Ganymede(a dark barren relatively smooth moon), and Callisto(second largest Jovian moon behind Ganymede, slightly larger than our moon). It's impressive even in modest binoculars to see them align with each other and revolve around our solar system's largest planet. The visible disk of Jupiter is rather boring in appearance in 10x binocs, but nonetheless is clearly defined by its flattened appearance due to a fast rotational period. Earth is 24 hours, of course, but Jupiter turns once on it's axis in a staggering 9 and a half hours.
As my father did with me when he first showed me a lunar eclipse at 3 am one day when I was young, I enjoy sharing these discoveries with my boy. He's a great kid and understands and excels in the astronomical arts as I once did, and still do. It's a life long pleasure of mine, that I'm only too proud to share with him. My daughter's not that into it, but maybe someday she will be. I encourage anyone who's never seen this magnificent visual treat to pick up a pair of binocs or a telescope and check it out for themselves. Here's a pic of approximately what is seen in 10x binoculars. See Ya!!
Amazing.
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