Someone said they viewed callisto when it passed in front of jupiter?

Question

Where do you get a telescope with power like that? Wouldn't it cost someone like millions of dollars?

Answer 1

You can get very nice inexpensive telescopes from Orion Telescopes on the Internet. (I have no connection, I did buy a Strar Blast for my son). $175 to $225 will get you some nice Newtonians (the Star Blast for $175 or the XT4.5 for $200 or so) and you'll be able to see Saturn's rings and the moons of Jupiter.

Small inexpensive telescopes like this can see SHADOW TRANSITS. A shadow transit is when you see the black dot crawl across Jupiter, the shadow of the moon. The SHADOW is high contrast and is EASY to see. The cheap 4-inch telescopes will do the trick.

To see the MOON against Jupiter is difficult. The sky overhead--the air--has to cooperate and be exceptionally still. The optics of the telescope have to be very good to top of the line. The kinds of telescopes that, in excellent sky conditions, can show the low contrast moon dead center against the soft colors of Jupiter would range, new price, from about $1k on up to $15k. One could argue the point, but it is a fair approximation. Larger aperture Newtonians and SCTs and smaller refractors with exquisite optics would be able to do the trick....in excellent seeing conditions.

A moon is most difficult to see against Jupiter when it is directly centered. As it enters and exits, it's pretty easy to follow--in a real nice scope. The Star Blast is an excellent beginner's scope but for Jupiter the XT4.5 or XT6 would be a better choice. These range from about $175 to $300.

Most people won't distinguish between seeing "the shadow of the moon" (shadow transit) and the actual moon crossing (moon transit) but these are two distinct (but related events) and most people who talk about a transit are in fact usually talking about shadow transits. A few years ago we had double and triple shadow transits going on all at once on Jupiter and these events were easily within reach of inexpensive telescopes.

Answer 2

An amateur telescope costing only a few hundred dollars, such as the ones in the first source, could show that. The big 12 inch one could easily show it. I took all the pictures in the second source with a 6 inch telescope that I bought used for $50. That was a pretty good deal though, the list price new would have been hundreds.

Answer 3

No way, thats a myth. I have a telescope 3 inches wide. (the wider it is the more power it has) Jupiter is huge and with my scope, I could see the stripes and barely the "giant red spot". When one of its moons passes in front of the planet, you'ld be able to see it as a tiny black dot and a shadow on the planet itself. With mine I can see Saturn's rings and the spaces in between them. So NO, you don't need an expensive scope. PS> no matter what telescope you used you still would only see stars as specks of light. They are too far even for hubble.

Answer 4

You can see the four big moons of Jupiter with a 10X50 pair of binoculars. They're one of the first things galileo saw with his tiny primitive telescope.

Answer 5

If you click the following link, you'll see plenty of Jupiter transit photos taken with perfectly standard amateur equipment.

Answer 6

you could actually see jupiters four largest moons with large binoculars. but in a small aperture instrument like binocs or a small scope the moons look like little "stars" orbiting jupiter. go buy a cheap small scope, trust me you wont be dissapointed!!!!

Answer 7

Eh not millions maybe thousands.

Answer 8

eh not millions ma by thousands