What Jupiter and Mercury Have in Common?
Before we jump to premature conclusions with easy answers such as 'nothing at all' or 'at least they are both orbiting the Sun', perhaps we could do some quick research, just in case... With Jupiter's equatorial radius almost thirty times bigger than the same property on Mercury, the obvious composition difference between one gas giant and a small rocky planet and all the other major differences in mass, density, temperature, orbital inclination, and orbit period, and with almost everything we could compare the two, it is very hard to find the slightest similarity. Not to say that Jupiter in its arsenal is in possession of moons equal to or even bigger in size than the smallest planet of our solar system.
However, within the past couple of seasons, what they had in common was the fact that they were under the spotlight of all of us who, from time to time, enjoy gazing at the sky with our naked eyes or through modest telescopes with a strong feeling of being the witnesses of our own solar system at work. It all started at the end of last year with a rare Jupiter-Mercury conjunction when two planets came close to each other to the size of two moon-diameters. It was easily observed without any optical aids just after the sunset on December 21, 2018.
Even better, the show was on June 12, 2019. On that day, the giant planet was closest to Earth during the celestial event known as Jupiter’s opposition. At its closest point, it came to within 641 million km from Earth. We took the chance to point the telescope and observe the mighty planet and its four largest Galilean moons: IO, EUROPA, GANYMEDE, and CALLISTO. If you watch the video, you'll find the entire story of the event and more facts about the history of the most famous moons, along with short footage from the Sky-Watcher and references in the video's description.
Culmination in our amateur astronomy happened a couple of days ago on November 11, 2019, with the celestial transit of Mercury over the face of the Sun. It was the last transit of the small planet for a while, and the next time it is going to 'eclipse' the mother star again will be in 2032! It was hard to take the photo of the event since it was fuzzy and cloudy with the sunset approaching rapidly, but we made it at last, and it was worth all the efforts.
Stay tuned for more celestial events in the future and maybe some more stories and photos from the active heavens, along with our first long-exposure astrophotographs from outside the solar system.
However, within the past couple of seasons, what they had in common was the fact that they were under the spotlight of all of us who, from time to time, enjoy gazing at the sky with our naked eyes or through modest telescopes with a strong feeling of being the witnesses of our own solar system at work. It all started at the end of last year with a rare Jupiter-Mercury conjunction when two planets came close to each other to the size of two moon-diameters. It was easily observed without any optical aids just after the sunset on December 21, 2018.
Even better, the show was on June 12, 2019. On that day, the giant planet was closest to Earth during the celestial event known as Jupiter’s opposition. At its closest point, it came to within 641 million km from Earth. We took the chance to point the telescope and observe the mighty planet and its four largest Galilean moons: IO, EUROPA, GANYMEDE, and CALLISTO. If you watch the video, you'll find the entire story of the event and more facts about the history of the most famous moons, along with short footage from the Sky-Watcher and references in the video's description.
Culmination in our amateur astronomy happened a couple of days ago on November 11, 2019, with the celestial transit of Mercury over the face of the Sun. It was the last transit of the small planet for a while, and the next time it is going to 'eclipse' the mother star again will be in 2032! It was hard to take the photo of the event since it was fuzzy and cloudy with the sunset approaching rapidly, but we made it at last, and it was worth all the efforts.
Stay tuned for more celestial events in the future and maybe some more stories and photos from the active heavens, along with our first long-exposure astrophotographs from outside the solar system.
