Jupiter Through a Telescope!?

Question

If you had a telescope like let's say the Meade ETX90 and you looked a Jupiter in great detail,would you be able to see the Gas storms on Jupiter Moving?

Answer 1

You should be able to see the cloud bands of Jupiter with that scope. The Great Red Spot has to be seen right when it crosses the meridian, but again, you should be able to see it. On an exceptionally good night, you might be able to see whorls in the cloud bands, but you won't be able to see them moving. They are HUGE storms that take time to change.

Answer 2

Whoa!
Let's get a bit more realistic!
Forget the sales hype for a moment, along with the great Hubble pictures they usually put on the boxes.
With a Telescope of less than 4" aperture, you are not going to examine Jupiter "In great Detail".
That does not mean that Jupiter isn't fascinating to watch.!
With a 90mm Telescope, you will be able to see four of Jupiter's moons and during a night's observing you can actually see them move in teir orbits but it takes a few hours to really notice the difference.
You will also be able to make out SOME surface detail such as the cloud bands on a good night. ( PLanetary observing is very much limited by the turbulance in the Atmosphere, on some nights you can't even use more than 40X magnification before the image breaks up.)
ON the few excellent nights, when you can use close to 200X,( which is about the max usable magnification for a 90mm Telescope ) you can see some good surface detail. As for Deep Space objects such as Nebulae, Star clusters and Galaxies, they will all be in black and white since the human eye cannot see colour under dim lighting conditions.
If you want to see colour in these objects at all, you have to use a camera which can accumulate light over time, something the eye cannot do.
I really wish Manufacturers and dealers would stop putting all these misleading images and descriptions on their products.
Astronomical observation is thrilling enough by itself, it doesn't need the hype.
This hobby loses more people because they are disappointed when their false expectations are not fulfilled.
The single most important piece of advice I can give you is: Find an Astronomy club in your Area and attend one of their "star Parties". They are free, and you get to look through lots of Telescopes and see how they are set up and operated. There will be Telescopes of a similar size to the one you are thinking of buying, giving you a good idea of wht to expect BEFORE you spend a dime.
Believe me, I would like nothing more than to welcome another person to this fascinating Hobby and I would not like to see you walk away from it because you started with unrealistic expectations.
Good Luck!!

Adolph

Answer 3

I have observed Jupiter with an ETX90, and can tell you what I have seen. I should mention that I am an experienced planetary observer, so my eye is trained to detect faint, low contrast features which beginners might miss.

Jupiter's major cloud belts are readily visible at magnifications around 150x. You may be able to make out some detail within them, and this detail may be seen to move because of Jupiter's rapid rotation; changes will be visible over a period of 15 or 20 minutes. Jupiter's Great Red Spot _may_ be visible at times because it's making a fairly strong contrast this year with the bright clouds at its latitude.

You definitely will be able to see the shadows of Jupiter's moons as they pass across the face of Jupiter. I had my ETX90 at a star party once, and many people were able to see these shadows. You probably won't be able to see the moons themselves in front of Jupiter, this requires at least a 5" aperture. The moons will be easily visible when not in front of or behind Jupiter itself, and you'll see them change positions from night to night.

You will not be able to see motion within Jupiter's clouds themselves, as such motion takes place over periods of days or weeks. Any motion you see will be due to the whole planet's rotation once every 10 hours. It's slow, but noticeable over a period of 15 minutes or more, but only if you have a high contrast object for reference. Jupiter's cloud details are very subtle and low contrast, and your eye will need practice to see them.

Answer 4

Interesting, I don't know about the gas storms. Viewing Jupiter through a telescope was one of the most exciting things I've viewed through mine. I have a very primitive 4 inch reflector so yours is probably much better. I could see the moons very clearly, and at highest magnification I could see the bands on the surface (barely).

Answer 5

It sounds like you're considering buying one. I suggest you contact a local astronomy club and attend one of their "star parties'. This is a night time get together starting around sun down. People will bring their own telescopes. It may even be at an observatory with a large telescope.

There, you will find friendly people, some of whom will let you look through their telescope. You'll get a first-hand view of what each one is like, so you'll know which type you want. The regulars attending will also be knowledgeable about astronomy, and I can almost guarantee that they would love to share their knowledge in the hopes of helping you become more interested in astronomy.

Answer 6

An ETX90 is a bit small to see small detail, but it will show the belts that make the planet look striped. You may be able to make out the great red spot, although with my 150mm telescope it looks white to me. A 90mm telescope will be too small to show the smaller storms at all.

Answer 7

Not really. You need a larger scope with more magnification and filters to help bring out the clouds.

You can see a few cloud bands and the great red spot and watch the great red spot move across as the planet rotates, but you can't see any vassilations in the clouds.

Answer 8

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is following dramatic and rapid changes in Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere that will be critical for targeting observations made by the Galileo space probe when it arrives at the giant planet later this year.

This Hubble image provides a detailed look at a unique cluster of three white oval-shaped storms that lie southwest (below and to the left) of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The appearance of the clouds, as imaged on February 13, 1995 is considerably different from their appearance only seven months earlier. Hubble shows these features moving closer together as the Great Red Spot is carried westward by the prevailing winds while the white ovals are swept eastward. (This change in appearance is not an effect of last July's comet Shoemaker- Levy 9 collisions with Jupiter.)

The outer two of the white storms formed in the late 1930s. In the centers of these cloud systems the air is rising, carrying fresh ammonia gas upward. New, white ice crystals form when the upwelling gas freezes as it reaches the chilly cloud top level where temperatures are -200 degrees Fahrenheit (-130 degrees Centigrade).

The intervening white storm center, the ropy structure to the left of the ovals, and the small brown spot have formed in low pressure cells. The white clouds sit above locations where gas is descending to lower, warmer regions. The extent of melting of the white ice exposes varied amounts of Jupiter's ubiquitous brown haze. The stronger the down flow, the less ice, and the browner the region.

A scheduled series of Hubble observations will help target regions of interest for detailed scrutiny by the Galileo spacecraft, which will arrive at Jupiter in early December 1995. Hubble will provide a global view of Jupiter while Galileo will obtain close-up images of structure of the clouds that make up the large storm systems such as the Great Red Spot and white ovals that are seen in this picture.

This color picture is assembled from a series of images taken by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, in planetary camera mode, when Jupiter was at a distance of 519 million miles (961 million kilometers) from Earth. These images are part of a set of data obtained by a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) team headed by Reta Beebe of New Mexico State University.

Object Name: Jupiter

Image Type: Astronomical


Credit: Reta Beebe, Amy Simon (New Mexico State Univ.), and NASA

Answer 9

Sales pitch says "Observe the continually changing cloud-belt patterns on the surface of the planet Jupiter; shadows cast on to Jupiter as one of its four principal satellites transits the planet's disc"

Answer 10

Probably not. You'd be able to see the bands of clouds around Jupiter, but, like the weather satellites watching Earth, you only "see" them move when they put multiple exposures of time-lapse photography in motion.

However - you *can* see the orbit of Io and Titan - when they come around the side of the big planet into view. That's pretty cool.