Jupiter, The Planet Where Loads Of Stuff Happens

Okay, technically, more stuff doesn’t happen on Jupiter than on Saturn, Uranus, or, what’s the other greenish one, the one with the lions, oh yeah, Earth, but because Jupiter is so big, and relatively (I really stress reletively!), near, you can see a lot of interesting stuff there. So join me (figuratively, no offence, but I’m not letting you anywhere near my house because I don’t know you), as I take you on a wonderful adventure to the planet Jupiter (unfortunately this is also figurative, Star Trek was more than fifty years ago, where’s my warp drive?)

When I got my telescope in 2015, that night after seeing the moon, I saw my first ever planet, Jupiter. You can see a lot of detail on Jupiter, the two distinctive stripes can be seen, probably with a less powerful telescope than the six inch telescope I was using at the time, and four of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede, these are known as the Gallilean moons, and can easily be seen. In fact, the only reason you need a telescope to see the Gallilean moons is because Jupiter itself is so bright, if Jupiter wasn’t there you would be able to see the Gallilean moons with the naked eye. And this is just what I saw without astronomy sketching. When I started astronomy sketching, which trains the eye to see more, I saw a lot more detail. This is my first astronomy sketch of Jupiter, it’s not good, because it was my first attempt and I could see the clouds moving in so I wanted to get it done fast, but maybe the original is always best! I lie, this is definately my worst sketch of Jupiter.

The next sketch would be a massive improvement. It just goes to show that with perseverance and determination etc etc.

By this time I feel I was getting much better at astronomy sketching, though astronomy sketching is kind of a tricky beast, in principle I should be much better at astronomy sketching now then ever because I’ve been doing it for over five years, but at the same time, my best sketches of Saturn were years ago, I haven’t done a good sketch of Saturn in quite some time. It’s like you can be good at sketching an object and then all of a sudden you “lose it”.

But let’s talk about what can be seen here. You can easily see the two cloud belts, the “stripes”. And see the dark parts at the very North and the very South? I couldn’t see that level of detail before I started sketching. Sketching really forces your eye to work at full capacity.

For years I had been trying to find the Giant Red Spot of Jupiter, a storm that is twice as wide as Earth, and has existed for at least 150 years, possibly longer, people have observed a storm that fits a similar description before that, but it’s not possible to verify whether or not it’s a similar but different storm. I had actually seen the Red Spot loads of times, but every time I would check it on Stellarium (an astronomy app), it would show the Great Red Spot as not been visible at the time I had supposedly seen it. However, when I saw this:

I had to conclude that the information on Stellarium wasn’t completely accurate. Because the view of Jupiter was so clear that night, there was no doubt. The Great Spot was as easy to recognize that night as the rings of Saturn. So it almost certainly wasn’t the first time I saw the Great Red Spot, but it was wonderful to finally unambiguously see it, such an iconic part of our solar system.

Now let’s talk about one of my favourite things about viewing Jupiter. The moons! They are a delight to see. It’s amazing to view the moons of Jupiter, and then view them two hours later, they have already changed position, so fast is their journey around Jupiter. Here we have from left to right, Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io. Callisto is the third biggest moon in the solar system, and is a world of rock and ice. Ganymede is the biggest moon in our solar system, it is the only moon known to have a magnetic field. Europa is an ice world, and it is believed there is an ocean beneath its crust, and if we ever develop the technology to look beneath its surface, we may find not just an ocean, but life. Io is a tortured world of volcanoes, in fact it has 400 active volcanoes. My impression is that it’s not a particularly safe place to live, but that’s just me.

2020 was one of the best years of my life for astronomy, and given the year that it was, I feel quite fortunate that there was something to give relief from the fear and uncertainty we all felt during that time. During this night, I could see a giant black spot on Jupiter. It was hard to describe, as if Jupiter had a giant hole in it! I was 90% sure of what I was seeing, and I verified it, it was Ganymede’s shadow on Jupiter! This was something I had wanted to see for years, and now I was finally seeing it. When you see things like this, it’s the greatest feeling in the world, because before you see such amazing events, you don’t know whether or not they will always be just out of reach. Maybe you simply don’t have a powerful enough telescope to see it. Maybe bad weather will always happen at the worst possible time. So it always fells a great privilege to see things like this.

But the strange and unpleasant year that was 2020 had one more surprising rays of sunshine to offer me. This I was incredibly lucky to see, Jupiter and Saturn so close together they could be seen at the same time through the telescope! I was beyond lucky to catch this. I was going to West Cork the next day, where I wouldn’t have my telescope, and when I was back Jupiter and Saturn would no longer be near each other. There was a very very temporary break in the clouds, and Jupiter and Saturn were very low in the sky. As soon as they were visible, they disappeared behind a house. So I tried something, thinking it wouldn’t work, but surely worth at try. I placed my telescope on top of a table, and I could see Jupiter and Saturn! This was one of the fastest astronomy sketches I ever did, that’s why it’s a bit lacking in detail. Within a mere few minutes either the the two planets were going to disappear behind a neighbour’s house, or the clouds were going to roll in, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen first. Another reason it’s lacking detail is, because the telescope was on top of a table, I had to sketch this standing up. But I managed it. This event is so rare, if I had I not seen it, I may have never seen it again. Such amazing luck!

And finally, my most recent sketch of Jupiter, done just a few days ago. On the left you have Io on top, with Europa under it, and on the right, Callisto is the one nearest to Jupiter, Ganymede the one further out.

So I hope you’ve all enjoyed seeing Jupiter as I see it. Jupiter is so easy to find and when you look it at, you tend to see amazing things, like the Galilean moons on their endless journey around their planet, a storm bigger than Earth, or the giant black shadow cast by Ganymede. Truly Jupiter is the gift that keeps on giving.