Night Sky Photography -- 12-01-2022 -- The Moon & Jupiter With Galilean Moons

Good evening fellow stargazers!

Earlier this evening a couple hours after sunset, I was able to capture the Waxing Gibbous Moon and Jupiter, along with the four visible moons of the largest planet in our Solar System. The photos came out beautifully and captured all of the heavenly bodies perfectly.

The largest planet of our solar system, Jupiter, has about 80 known moons in total. Of these about 57 are officially named with the further 23 awaiting confirmation and naming by the International Astronomical Union.

These moons orbiting Jupiter form a satellite system which is called the Jovian System.

The largest of these moons are the four Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, which were independently discovered on January 8, 1610 by European astronomers Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius and were the first celestial objects found to orbit a body that was neither the Earth or the Sun.

A composite image of photographs of the four Galilean Moons shows (from left to right):
Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
Image courtesy of NASA/JPL/DLR.

The four Galilean Moons are Jupiter's inner moons with regular orbits, while the rest of the smaller outer moons are on irregular orbits. The Galileans are also round moons, while the other Jovians have irregular shapes -- some of them possibly captured asteroids rather than true moons.

All the other smaller Jovian moons measure at less than 160 miles (250 kilometers) in diameter, with about 60 of the smaller satellites measuring less than 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter making them virtually invisible from the surface of the Earth even with a good telescope.  

Io is the innermost Galilean moon with a diameter of 2,260 miles (3,640 km) and a rotation period of 1.8 days around Jupiter at a distance of 262,200 miles (422,000 kilometers).

Europa is the smallest of the Galilean moons with a diameter of 1,940 miles (3,100 km) and a rotation period of 3.6 days around Jupiter at a distance of 417,000 miles (671,000 kilometers).

Ganymede is the largest of the Galilean moons, and the largest moon in the Solar System with a diameter of 3,270 miles (5,260 kilometers) and a rotation of 7.2 days around Jupiter at a distance of 665,000 miles (1,070,000 kilometers).

Callisto is the outermost of the Galilean moons, and the second largest moon of Jupiter with a diameter of 2,995 miles (4,820 km) and a rotation period of 16.7 days around Jupiter at a distance of 1,170,000 miles (1,883,000 kilometers).

With a good camera lens, a telescope, or a pair of good binoculars its possible to view these moons if you know where and when to look for them. To help identify the exact locations of the Galilean Moons, this blogger uses the outstanding astronomy website skyandtelescope.org as a reference source. I highly recommend this site to other amateur stargazers.