Thursday 5 September 2024

Jupiter's Galilean moons

I took this picture very early in the morning on the first of September, four days ago. I had stepped outside to catch a glimpse of the waning moon when I happened to look directly upwards at a bright spot of light. I thought it might be Jupiter, but I wasn't certain at the time. To confirm, I aimed my camera at it and took about 10 shots, all handheld, with nothing to brace against to steady my hands. To make matters trickier, I had to slow the shutter speed down to one-fifth of a second because of the darkness. Unsurprisingly, most of my attempts resulted in streaky lines going in every direction. Still, I managed to salvage one from the bunch. As they say, it was the best of a bad lot. There is still a bit of camera shake, but overall, Jupiter looks round enough to me. As for the Galilean moons, well, not so much. I suspect this was because the sun wasn't shining directly on Jupiter or its moons but rather at an angle, similar to how our own moon appears when it’s waxing or waning. That's just my theory, of course — I could be entirely wrong, and it might simply be down to… camera shake. From top left to bottom right, the Galilean moons are Callisto, Ganymede, Io, and Europa. That much, at least, I'm sure of.



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