The night I watched Jupiter and its moons for the first time

Ελληνική μετάφραση

Tonight, I used my new telescope for the first time. And it wasn't even a really organized watch. Athena and Ι just went on our terrace to collect the laundry, so we took the opportunity to try it out.

I spent like 20 minutes to set up the scope on a wooden chair that was low and somewhat unstable. All around us, there was abundant light obscuring the faint glimmer of the stars: Street lamps, nearby houses and of course the glow of the surrounding city of Athens. On the plus side, it was a moonless night in mid April and there were little clouds.

I picked the brightest star I could see with my naked eye and tried to see what it was, using Google Sky Map on my phone. Alas, it was no star: It was Jupiter! I pointed the scope in that direction (west) and used the laser finder to home-in on the planet. The finder was off by a little, but I soon had Jupiter on the eyepiece. It appeared small so I switched to the 65x lens to get a closer look. Now I could clearly see the stripes of Jupiter's atmosphere but, most importantly, I could see four of the massive planet's moons. It was the first time in my entire life that I could see another planet using only two mirrors inside a tube and my naked eye. It was also the first time I witnessed first-hand the Earth's rotation: When I homed in on Jupiter, the planet would appear to move slowly downwards and moments later it would move out of view inside the eyepiece. I quickly realized that it wasn't Jupiter that was moving but Earth due to its rotation around itself.

We then took turns with Athena watching Jupiter in the scope, moving it slightly every time the planet went out of view. “What about Saturn?”, Athena said. I searched again using Sky Map. Saturn was low on the horizon, over the part of the sky illuminated most by the city of Athens and I could not make it out with my naked eye. So I turned the scope towards Mars instead. Mars was high above the horizon and was bright enough. After focusing a bit I could see it clearly. It appeared smaller than Saturn but you could distinguish patches of different shades on its surface. Athena described it as a very small Earth moon. Around it, fainter stars were visible, ones that I could not make out without the scope.

We changed between Saturn and Mars another time and then we tried to take photos. That endeavor ended quickly, though. Our mobile phones could not be held firmly enough close to the telescope's eyepiece for enough time to focus on the view. The planets did not even register at the camera's viewfinder. It was clear that we needed more sophisticated hardware to take even the simplest photos of the sky. We also quickly realized we need more magnification to get closer images from the planets.

We packed the scope and went into the house. It was starting to get annoyingly chilly. I can't wait to get the scope somewhere really dark so we can watch the Milky Way or even other galaxies if we're lucky. I am also anxious to see the moon and its craters. I know now I will remember this night for the rest of my life. Nothing shows you what and where you are better than a telescope's view into the sky.

Disclaimer: I am not an astronomer. All I know about telescopes is what I learnt from Youtube while I was waiting for a few days for the scope to be delivered. This shows me how easy it is to get intro watching the stars by spending little time and money.

Equipment: Skywatcher Heritage 130p Dobsonian telescope. Video review