The NASA Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. AURA’s Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. ViewSpace videos are on exhibit at museums, science centers, and planetariums across the country. A map of the sky from the Planck Space Telescope highlights variations in the cosmic microwave background radiation—energy left over from the big bang some 13.8 billion years ago. Visible, infrared, and X-ray light from supernova remnant Cassiopeia A reveal remains of an exploded star.
Like Saturn, Jupiter is a “gas giant”, a massive planet made up almost entirely of cold hydrogen and helium gas along with traces of other gases like ammonia and methane. (Uranus and Neptune are also sometimes called gas giants, or, because they are much colder, “ice giants”). Gas and ice giants do not have well defined rocky surfaces like the Earth. Their outer layers are made entirely of clouds; further down the gas turns to compressed liquid, and at the very center of these planets may be a rocky carbon core. Don’t restrict yourself to observing Jupiter only during opposition! It is worth observing virtually any time you can see it, and it’s easily visible in the evening skies for perhaps 3-5 months after opposition.
At its brightest it shines at magnitude +5.6 and can be readily identified with good binoculars. Full sky view of the constellations, their boundaries, the Milky Way. S & T seems to have more for the intermediate observer, with a nice monthly column for small scope observers and a few other appropriate articles each month.
Many people who buy or receive a telescope are lost when they try to find objects in the sky. First of all, what are the interesting objects, other than the Moon and planets? It really doesn’t take too long to get straightened out if you find the right guides, but where are they?
This view displays basic information about the object, and contains buttons to center it in the sky chart or in your telescope’s field of view. Discover good telescopes for seeing planets with from the comfort of your own home. on iOS (lite) and Android to show you 88 constellations, over 8,000 deep-sky objects, and the sun, moon and planets, all in real time. The app uses a 3D compass in AR mode that indicates the position of objects you’ve searched for. Stargazing can be a relaxing activity, especially with a friend or partner.