Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#1

Post by sgoel » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 7:32 PM UTC

Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years
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Re: Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#2

Post by sgt » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 7:47 PM UTC

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter

Re: Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#3

Post by JoeAltmaier » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 7:51 PM UTC

When I was a kid in the 70s, I could distinguish a moon of Jupiter as a separate blip with my naked eye.

Re: Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#4

Post by marcinw » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 8:23 PM UTC

sgt wrote: post #2

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter

Thanks, even more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/

Re: Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#5

Post by cryptoz » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 8:25 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #3

When I was a kid in the 70s, I could distinguish a moon of Jupiter as a separate blip with my naked eye.

Really? That seems unlikely. Very few people have ever made such a claim, though it does seem that it could be possible.

http://www.denisdutton.com/jupiter_moons.htm

Re: Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#6

Post by sgoel » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 8:38 PM UTC

Checkout my Palo Alto viewing party using my company's event creation service: http://poig.com/pings/4c9798d0d4ac14411c00001f/

I'll be at Arastradero Preserve in the Palo Alto Hills tonight around 11PM with a telescope and some buddies. Exit off Page Mill from 280 and head west towards the hills. Take a RIGHT on Arastradero and drive up about a mile and take a right into the parking lot.

WE WILL HAVE A LIMITED SUPPLY OF SIMPLER TIMES BEER

Re: Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#7

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 8:38 PM UTC

And of course it is completely overcast here :(

Re: Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#8

Post by atlbeer » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 8:39 PM UTC

Is there a good iPhone app that uses both the GPS and the Compass to do star finding and identification?

Re: Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#9

Post by sgoel » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 8:40 PM UTC

atlbeer wrote: post #8

Is there a good iPhone app that uses both the GPS and the Compass to do star finding and identification?

I'm using Planets, apparently it has 3 mil downloads and it's free

Re: Tonight Jupiter making closest approach in nearly 50 years

#10

Post by SoftwareMaven » Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 8:42 PM UTC

cryptoz wrote: post #5

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #3

When I was a kid in the 70s, I could distinguish a moon of Jupiter as a separate blip with my naked eye.

Really? That seems unlikely. Very few people have ever made such a claim, though it does seem that it could be possible. http://www.denisdutton.com/jupiter_moons.htm

Up-voting, not for the skepticism (which is easy), but for providing evidence that the skepticism might be wrong. Thanks for the interesting article.