GarryP

In a typical piece of nationalistic jingoism, the US have arranged for the Juno spacecraft to arrive at Jupiter on Terrorist Insurrection Memorial Day.


Given that they are behind the times, that means lunchtime, our time, tomorrow.Assuming they don't stuff anything up it should then be in big looping orbits that come close to Jupiter (and through the radiation belts) every 2 weeks.

A realtime interactive 3D simulation of the encounter can be found at
Juno JOI Realtime Simulation

GarryP

Juno currently coming in over the pole of Jupiter, starting the reorientation for the burn (that kink in the blue line).

knockoff nige

Spacecraft taking selfies on holiday. Pfft.

GarryP

It's from the 3D realtime sim you can see in your browser (the link above). You can see the thrusters burn, and the manoeuvres as they happen (either in Jupiter time or earth time)

Now rotated ready to spin up and then burn to enter orbit.

GarryP

Now burning, close to the planet, to slow down to capture.

knockoff nige

I got a telescope a few months ago when Jupiter was visible from my balcony. I was a little underwhelmed at first as it just appeared as a bright white ball. But then I realised you have to keep looking until your eyes adapt. Impressive sight. Was really blown away when I saw Saturn and its rings for the first time though. Space is a bit mad, isn't it?

GarryP

There's a technique, called 'averted vision', where you look to the side of the object you are interested in, but keep your attention on the object. It can help to bring out fainter objects and/or enhance the contrast.

Thing is your eyes are sh*t and most of what you see is reconstructed in your brain. You actively have to muck around with what you look at and how to stretch the maximum performance from your eyes.

You should be able to see belts etc. on Jupiter with even a small telescope - although the Red Spot has been getting smaller over the decades, and so getting harder and harder to see.

knockoff nige

I managed to see the belts and 4 of the moons. It really is all dependent on the atmosphere though as some times, even with no cloud, it can be far too blurry. Also, keeping one eye closed is a bad idea. Something I learned. There are binoviewers you can get to allow use of both eyes but then it gets quite a bit more expensive as you need to double your eyepieces. Quite a fascinating hobby though. I haven't built up the courage to take it to a proper dark site yet. I might do that in the summer.

GarryP

Yep, seeing is important for quality. You get to be able to predict when seeing is likely to be good (clear night, cloudy day, clear night). You also have to allow the telescope to cool down properly (takes 30 mins at least). BTW Mars is also in the night sky at the moment.

Confirmation of the end of the burn just came through, so it should be good, if the high gain antenna gets pointed back at the earth.

DeadVim

I saw Saturn and the rings for the first time last year, it was a gathering of sky-watchers with ridiculously powerful/expensive telescopes. For a gold coin donation you got a go at all of them. Sausage sizzle too, winner.

knockoff nige

Yeah I know of a group around me that do a similar thing. I might venture out sometime. The thing is, after I got my telescope, I wasn't happy with how shaky it was so got another one. But I didn't really hold back and got a bit of a beast which is quite heavy and a bit of hassle to transport. Really amazing to see Saturn for the first time, isn't it?

GarryP

I've had a go on a few sizeable telescopes. Probably the biggest is this one a Greenwich



There's a camera onboard Juno (Junocam) that is primarily for the public engagement. The public get to task it, and do the processing of the images etc. So in theory, you could get to control THAT spacecraft camera....