Jupiter Recorded with a Digital Camera

Sunday night I attached my digital camera to a camera tripod and aimed it at Jupiter. Sunday was our first clear night in roughly a week and it was impossible to miss Jupiter during my walk.

The following image is a five second exposure taken through a FinePix S7000. The camera lens was zoomed to its maximum six-power optical zoom and the digital zoom was not used. The tripod was required to hold the camera motionless long enough for the exposure. I used a cable release to reduce the amount of shaking that comes from pressing down on the camera’s shutter.

As you can see, the camera recorded two of the Galilean satellites. The other two, Io and Europa were too close to Jupiter’s glare for the camera to separate them from the planet.

Jupiter is close to the Hyades star cluster this autumn and winter. Over a dozen of its members are visible in this five second long picture. The Hyades is the closest star cluster to Earth, at only 153 light years away. That means the light we see from the cluster tonight left in 1859. That’s the year Charles Darwin published his book on the origin of species.