Malua Bay photographer snaps Jupiter’s Galilean moons

Jupiter’s Galilean moons imaged on Tuesday 21 July 2009 at 8:21 pm by Colin Ladmore

Last week Sam Groves, a reporter from the Bay Post/Moruya Examiner, sent me an image that a local photographer had taken of a bright light in the sky. What was it?

At first I just saw a blurry object on the image. However, it was a large image and as I zoomed in I noticed four spots of light below the blurry object. These looked suspiciously like Jupiter’s four Galilean moons. And on checking with TheSky planetarium software there was an exact match. They were definitely the Galilean moons and the over-exposed object was Jupiter! This became the material for a good story.

Jupiter and its moons on 21 July 2009 at 8:21 pm calculated with TheSky software

It is particularly appropriate to image Jupiter and its moons this year as it is the International Year of Astronomy. It has been designated as such by the United Nations to commemorate the Italian scientist Galileo turning a telescope to the sky for the first time 400 years ago. Among his many discoveries in January 1610 Galileo discovered the four brightest moons of Jupiter now known as the Galilean moons.

The planet Neptune is currently near Jupiter in the sky and should be visible on Cameron’s full image. However, I am a little uncertain if I was able to find the right spot on the image or not.

The moral of the story is that if you have a good camera and a tripod, it is easy to take pictures of the sky. Have a go!