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Thread: Jupiter?

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    Senior Member ajbrun's Avatar
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    Arrow Jupiter?

    Me and my Dad were travelling back home from Leeds to York today. After a while, I spotted something in the sky. I first thought it was the moon because it looked a similar size, but this one was red. Also, it was lit up from below, and I don't think it's possible for the moon to do that (at least not in the UK AFAIK). Therefore, I began to think it was one of the planet. Because of it's size (about the same size as the moon), I thought it must have been either saturn or jupiter, and since jupiter's the only red one out of the two, I thought that must be it.

    Is it Jupiter that I saw? The time was about 18:30. It was very slightly above the horizon, and very red in colour. I didn't have a compass with me at the time, but we were travelling from Leeds to York, and it was positioned between 2 and 3 O' clock, so work it out yourself .

    If it was Jupiter, then I'd be quite surprised. It was the same size as the moon!!!! Now I know that Jupiter is 150 time bigger than earth (I think), but it is also a heck of a distance away.

    I saw it for a while, but later I lost it. It could have been because we'd entered some big trading estates with lots of lights, but even when we came out of them, I couldn't see it again. My theory on that is the sun would have gone too far below the horizon for it to light up Jupiter anymore, therefore making it very hard to see.

    What do you all think? Have you seen anything like it?
    (it's probably common knowledge that some planet is in the sky - I just didn't here it )

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    Cute & Fluffy GreenPiggy's Avatar
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    Jupiter never appears as more than a bright dot in the sky.
    The only thing it could have been was Mars, but it wouldn't appear as big as the moon so it was probably them damn aliens nicking another cow.
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    Senior Member ajbrun's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GreenPiggy
    Jupiter never appears as more than a bright dot in the sky.
    The only thing it could have been was Mars, but it wouldn't appear as big as the moon so it was probably them damn aliens nicking another cow.
    I thought it was a little big to be another planet TBH, but I really don't know what it could have been. It was definatly somthing because you could sort of see a sillouette (sp?) of the part of the thing that wasn't lit up.

    I think the moon can go red can't it? But can it really go just below the horizon too? I'm pretty sure that a half moon shows either the left or the right of the moon, not the bottom!

    What's going on? I'm not making this up .

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    Senior Member Tumble's Avatar
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    na mate.. it was the moon.. just cos it's low on the horizon - makes it look look really big.. and it will look quite red too.

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    To answer you question, was it Jupiter - no. No, no, no. Not in a million years. Jupiter, whilst big, does not appear in the night sky as big as the moon.

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    Senior Member ajbrun's Avatar
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    I didn't think it could have been jupiter because of the size, but saw no other option because I thought that the moon couldn't have been lit up in that way. Obviously I was wrong!

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    Senior Member Nemeliza's Avatar
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    maybe u discovered a noo planet? ^_^

    or yo eyes messin with you.

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    Senior Member ajbrun's Avatar
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    Well my dad saw it too....

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    Gold Member Marcos's Avatar
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    How big do Mars and Jupiter appear in the sky? Could I easily see it with the naked eye?

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    Yep saw it too on the way home, was definitely the moon. Been very good full moon recently, and it was ace watching it on the way home, was kinda freaky tho

    TiG
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    Other planets, when you can see them, look like nothing more than strangely coloured stars. Venus you can see often, which looks like an especially bright star with the naked eye.
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    Excellent free proggy:

    http://www.winstars.net/english/index2.html

    Easily find where everything is.

    I you can find someone with a decent telescope and look at Saturn, I could never get bored of that. Amazing evertime I look at it, not seen the Red Spot yet. Somthing always gets in the way... Like mist or cloud, that and it is only visible 1-2 times a day.

    What you witnessed would have been the moon at a very low altitude, when it is this low you have alot of atmosphere to look through, this can make it appear red, mainly caused by the moon being in the earths shadow and the way red light is bent by the atmosphere. The low altitude also gives the illution of it being larger than it is.
    Last edited by Capt Doufos; 01-12-2004 at 12:29 AM.

  13. #13
    Gold Member Marcos's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Capt Doufos
    Excellent free proggy:

    http://www.winstars.net/english/index2.html

    Easily find where everything is.

    I you can find someone with a decent telescope and look at Saturn, I could never get bored of that. Amazing evertime I look at it, not seen the Red Spot yet. Somthing always gets in the way... Like mist or cloud, that and it is only visible 1-2 times a day.

    What you witnessed would have been the moon at a very low altitude, when it is this low you have alot of atmosphere to look through, this can make it appear red, mainly caused by the moon being in the earths shadow and the way red light is bent by the atmosphere. The low altitude also gives the illution of it being larger than it is.
    You can see saturn with a consumer telescope?

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marcos
    You can see saturn with a consumer telescope?

    Well according to the proggy he linked to, yes
    To the eye, just looks like a bright star.

    Must be a really nice telescope though, with my cheap crappy telescope, saturn just looks like a dot.. but the moon does look quite nice

    I can hardly see any stars atm, but:
    two above the moon - part of twins
    and just below the moon there is saturn

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    It's about £300's worth (including equitorial mount) 130mmish Refractor, by no means huge, you should be able to see it using as liitle as 70mm, your image just won't be as bright, a scope which allows you to see it would cost you no more than £100-£150.

    This is the style of mine this:

    http://www.flybird.co.uk/helios_startravel_150.htm

    Anything here would probably be good enough to see the planets:

    http://www.telescopehouse.co.uk/page...t7d8cdq8uCwdj7


    With mine you can see the gap in the rings and make out shadows of moons etc, the main obsticle is that vibration of the scope makes it hard to have a pin sharp focus, breathe on it and it wobbles.

    Andromida is anouther good sight, if you can find it. It's tends to be invisble to the naked eye.

  16. #16
    Gold Member Marcos's Avatar
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    Im just amazed at the fact that saturn can in fact be seen with just a £100-£400 telescope. I never really looked into it, and i've always lived in light polluted areas

    I'll take a night out to go somewhere dark one day to properly star gaze for the first time

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