Post

Paul Byrne
@theplanetaryguy.com

Astrophotographer Adam (AJ) Smadi caught this image a few hours ago from Washington state. A thin crescent Moon, sunlight illuminating the rugged lunar surface. And 2,400 times farther away—and on the other side of the Sun—mighty Jupiter, and its moons Io (left) and Ganymede (right).

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kot ΘΔ
@outbackcatgirl.myatproto.social

i need to know the fucking wizardry of the telefocus between the moon and fucking jupiter like if this is as shot, in optics, and not a dual shot composite with differing focal lengths, it's bloody cool as hell. still cool as hell if it's a composite,its just blowing my mind with the literal optics

kot ΘΔ
@outbackcatgirl.myatproto.social

i mean *yeah* but like also *it's really cool* that we have optics on earth that can resolve two objects that are "pretty fucking far away" and "mind-bogglingly, ridiculously far away" respectively in one photo without one or both becoming a fuzzy indeterminate blob in the process light is cool

HenryJiM
@henryjim.bsky.social

looks to me like only Jupiter is in sharp focus; at higher res the moon looks a bit soft but the whole image was sharpened. also this appears to be cropped. and the optics are a 9.25" aperture Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope, 2350mm f/10.

kot ΘΔ
@outbackcatgirl.myatproto.social

i suppose i never really thought about it, given i assumed light's divergence and scattering would factor in more. guess the whole "near enough complete vacuum in space" thing prevents most scattering within optical wavelengths until the light gets close enough to an atmosphere. neat!

Laz
@laz1985.bsky.social

I always forget how far away moons are from their planets, but Io and Ganymede in this photo really put it into perspective.

Paul Byrne
@theplanetaryguy.com

It's worth emphasising that the reason we see the full disk of Jupiter but a crescent Moon is because Jupiter is on the other side of the Sun. Indeed, we cannot see a crescent Jupiter from Earth; we'd have to be beyond it for that to work. A beautiful illustration of how the Solar System works.

(starhag)
@gwenforr.bsky.social

That is not Callisto. We wouldn’t see it that far above Jupiter. Callisto is actually just out of frame to the right, and Europa is behind Jupiter.

(starhag)
@gwenforr.bsky.social

Callisto is out of frame to the right in this pic. The last pic on the Instagram post and you can see it there, faintly. It’s the darkest of the four big ones.

Sarah Grey
@sarahlynngrey.bsky.social

Sometimes the universe just stops me in my tracks because it's so incredible. This was one of those moments for me. (PS I'm reading an e-ARC of Horngard and loving every second of it! 💜)

Jim H
@larrykroger.bsky.social

Hi, I too am having trouble get my head around the blue sky, implying that this shot was taken during the day. Where I live we often see the moon during the day but Jupiter, bands and moons? Can you explain?

Jim H
@larrykroger.bsky.social

Thanks, did not know that and I I'll have to try seeing it sometime. So that photo was taken during the day? Spectacular to say the least, kudos to you.

(starhag)
@gwenforr.bsky.social

And that’s not even the full extent. Callisto is actually out of frame to the right. It orbits Jupiter at a distance of 1.9 million kilometers.

Study Verses
@study114.bsky.social

For each one are successive [angels] before and behind him who protect him by the decree of god." 🌹 Quran Ar-Ra'd (13:11) —— As the two recording-angels—one sitting to the right, and the other to the left—note everything." Quran Qaf (50:17) —— Virgin Mary🌹 Prophet Jesus in Quran qr.ae/psc6Gs

qr.aeVirgin Mary .Prophet Jesus son of Mary 🌹 in Quran 🌹 And Mary the daughter of 'Imran, who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into (her body) of Our spirit; and she testified to the truth of the wor...
OtakuNoCreepo 🎃🇺🇦🇵🇸
@wessoman.bsky.social

It's just the existential vastness of the Universe just reminding you that all of human existence, much less you and your problems, mean absolutely nothing to the grand cosmic schema of things, so it's a completely natural feeling. I once actually had a near nervous breakdown while viewing NGC 5128.

(starhag)
@gwenforr.bsky.social

This is excellent work. I could barely see either in an 8” telescope. This was around 30° away from the sun. The sky was very bright there, and the thin crescent moon was only marginally brighter.

Robert
@ewile.bsky.social

I didn't think it was possible to get a clear image of Jupiter's bands through atmospheric distortion. That's the whole reason Hubble was launched. The position might be accurate, but I suspect this is a composited image.

(starhag)
@gwenforr.bsky.social

It is not a composite. The moon passed directly in front of Jupiter yesterday. You can see the atmospheric bands clearly in a telescope and get quite a bit of detail with a camera and telescope. This is one of my better ones, though an 8” telescope

Robert
@ewile.bsky.social

Very nice. I knew you could pick out the moons of Jupiter, but didn't think you could get that clear an image. I've seen stellar photographers take multiple exposures at different settings and then have to run them through a computer to composite them together to capture other things.

(starhag)
@gwenforr.bsky.social

The Moon and Jupiter were actually pretty close in brightness at the time. I could barely see either one in my telescope against that bright sky.

JeffV
@jeffv.bsky.social

My concern with this image isn’t the positions of objects, it’s the relative brightnesses. In my experience photographing Jupiter through a small telescope, getting the Galilean moons *and* cloud bands is impossible: 1/2

JeffV
@jeffv.bsky.social

2/2 an exposure long enough to show the moons washes out Jupiter. But if the exposure is short enough to show cloud bands, the moons are too dark to see. HDR might fix that; another solution is to take pictures at different exposures, and then composite them.

JeffV
@jeffv.bsky.social

Lucky imaging handles turbulence (“seeing”) but not relative brightness. Stacking frames isn’t one picture - the software combines pixels from many different pictures and then adjusts the relative brightness of different areas to make the result visually pleasing. It’s automated photoshopping.

Mick
@mickpic.bsky.social

55 years ago, I was in an astronomy club. We had amateur, backyard telescopes, but man, this does bring back memories. Seeing Jupiter and four of the moons the first time live, in lens, was quite an experience. Beautiful photo.

Joe Daziel
@joedalziel.bsky.social

I recall as a teenager using a 15cm Newtonian reflector and viewing the Jovian system as a very hazy image for the first time. It was so exciting. The tech has moved so far so fast. These images are next level! 🤩