Are the moons of jupiter visible through a pair of 10×50 binoculars?
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September 9, 2010
I have been seeing 1 dot adjacent to jupiter with my 10x50 binoculars. Is it mere psychological effect or I have really seen a satellite. I believe I checked on K stars it shows Io has magnitude around 5 and Ganymede around 4...something.
One day I see the dot, the next day its gone. Then again after a few days I see the dot. May be it does not show up when the moon is bright.
Thanks for your time.
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I just now took my 10X50 binoculars and saw all 4 Moons. They were easy to see with the binoculars on a tripod, but hand held I couldn’t hold them quite still enough. I could sort of see them, but not well enough to say definitely I could see them without having first seen them with the tripod holding the binoculars perfectly still.
yes.
Ganymede and Callisto are actually visible to the naked eye under absolutely perfect conditions (very dark clear sky, no Moon, Jupiter well above the horizon, eyes dark adapted, moons near extreme elongation from Jupiter). The four largest of Jupiter’s 63 known moons are visible with binoculars under reasonable conditions.
Mount your binoculars on a tripod, and you will be able to see Jupiter’s moons most of the time. They will be invisible when they are too close to the planet, but the same is true even if you’re observing them with a telescope. One night last week Jupiter had _no_ moons, because they were all either in front of, behind, or in the shadow of Jupiter.
maybe.
You might be surpised to find that you can see the Four Galileo moons with your binoculars quite easily with a tripod. With luck one night you can see all four at once!