Jupiter & Moons

By John Wiley

On a whim, we went out about 10:30 Monday night and looked low in the Southwest. A very bright “star” was there, so having read online that Jupiter’s so close now you can see its larger moons with binoculars we went and grabbed an 8x set. We weren’t sure if it was Jupiter or there was a very dim “star” just to the left of it, so I got camera & tripod. With a 600mm zoom and 1/8@f4, iso6400 I managed to snap this first pic (cropped and tweaked) possibly showing Jupiter and three moons, along with some of the brighter nearby stars. The second pic is reduced to 1/5@f4, iso320 in an attempt to reduce atmospheric and/or lens haze and that eliminated the star field. Will any astronomers send Ed tracking long-exposure telescope pix in color, and tell us whether this really is Jupiter? Will the air be clearer or Jupiter higher off the horizon sometime tomorrow night? Is it true that it’s closest on Wednesday?