YT: Jupiter rotates once every 8 or so hours, and some of its moons hammer round too!
The Earth rotates every 24 hrs, and its possible to get 8+ hrs of darkness.
It is possible, under favorable conditions (now (Summer 2009) is not a bad time) to see an entire rotation of Jupiter in one night!
This is a time lapse of me trying to get a timelapse of an entire rotation of Jupiter.
Few people realize just how visible the planets are, with Jupiter appearing as a bright star. Similarly Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn are all easily visible to the naked eye. Indeed the angular size of Venus (at its largest) and Jupiter is such that they are only just not visible as disks with the naked eye.
This video hopefully not only shows how accessible things like Jupiter are in even modest instruments (almost everything will show Jupiter as a banded disk, and the four main moons), but also links the timescales on which things happen on Earth to whats happening (the planet spinning and the moons orbiting) on Jupiter.
13 Comments
longdeBeautiful, but more Jupiter, less filler!
NithernI like the music. Anyone know what its called?
EDD^From YT comments it appears to be "Eternity" by Orion.
deathcowawesome job... 2nd that... more jupiter less BS
deathcowYou know whats even cooler? Take a picture of Jupiter every rotation at the same spot. Then assemble that into an animation. The great red spot sits still, and you see the direction of all the clouds moving. I'll go submit the video.
dannym3141This video is the most terribly edited, directed and sound-tracked......beautiful vision of the glory of the universe, i have ever seen.
Please never dirty such a beautiful series of images with this kinda bullshit ever again.
cybrbeast>> ^deathcow:
You know whats even cooler? Take a picture of Jupiter every rotation at the same spot. Then assemble that into an animation. The great red spot sits still, and you see the direction of all the clouds moving. I'll go submit the video.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/PIA02863_-_Jupiter_surface_motion_animation.gif
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/790106-0203_Voyager_58M_to_31M_reduced.gif
antWhat's with the lightings?
rychanI personally liked the fact that they showed the capture process.
demon_ixSimply incredible.
Crakefocus.. focus!
Thumpersays...>> ^rychan:
I personally liked the fact that they showed the capture process.
yeah, it sort of helps put things in perspective. While looking at the moons coming around I would glance back at the long distance shot and just imagine that little dot with two smaller dots rotating around it. Definitely enjoyed both shots...
garmachi>> ^ant:
What's with the lightings?
I'm not 100% sure what you mean by your question, but as an amateur astronomer (and photographer) I'll take my best guess at what you're asking. Astronomers prefer red lenses in their flashlights for two reasons.
(1) Red flashlights have the least impact on your dark adaptation. It takes nearly an hour of complete darkness for your eyes to FULLY dilate to the point of maximum sensitivity. This dilation greatly enhances your ability to detect extremely faint objects such as galaxies and nebulae. One instant of white light will undo this effect. Red lenses have the least impact on your dark adaptation.
(2) Thanks to light pollution astronomers tend to gather in large groups in the few remaining places where we can actually see the sky. The plethora of red lenses is quite the spectacle. Especially in time lapse.
Hope that helped.
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