1a:Will you see all four of Jupiter’s largest moons each time you look through a

Question

1a:Will you see all four of Jupiter’s largest moons each time you look through a telescope or binoculars? Explain your answer.

1b: Also, Jupiter’s moons look like dots in a telescope. You cannot tell them apart by their appearance, how could you identify each moon?

1c: Will you see all four of Jupiter’s largest moons each time you look through a telescope or binoculars? Explain your answer.

Jupiter’s moons look like dots in a telescope. You cannot tell them apart by their appearance. If you had no charts, how could you identify each moon?

Explanation / Answer

No, not all the time when we see with telescopes or binoculars.

Every six years the Earth lies in the orbital plane of Jupiter's moons. At this time Jupiter's 4 bright moons are directly in our line of sight, and the shifting of these moons, one in front of another, plus their shadows crossing the surface of Jupiter grab the attention of those with telescopes. This occurred in 2003, again in 2009 and now in 2015 when Earth moves through the plane of Jupiter's satellites, allowing the moons to line up in their special 6-year geometry.

Between April and December of 2009, observers around the world saw Jupiter's moons passing one in front of another as they circled the giant planet

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