Are they using modern pictures of Jupiter?

Question

I'm really looking for someone who as looked at Jupiter this summer with a scope bigger than 10 inches - maybe a half meter Obsession. Do you see color? My club has a 22" (558 mm). Maybe i should just use it.

The GRS was really cool.

Answer 1

It looks like they're using a variety of archival shots, based on the features visible. But the color is due to the fact that they have much bigger telescopes than we do, plus they have cranked up the color saturation to varying amounts. Here's a fairly recent set of amateur pictures:

http://www.astronomycamerasblog.com/2008...

You can also go to http://alpo-astronomy.org/ for amateur photos and drawings - currently they have a big Jupiter photo on the main page. For the most part, there isn't the telescope time available for the big scopes to make new Jupiter pictures all the time, and the pros often learn from amateur observers when a new feature (those new small red spots, e.g.) appears.

My experience with my 12" dob under dark skies is pretty similar to yours. The GRS appears as a pale oval with a slightly darker core. What color I see is more like beige.

Answer 2

Hubble and the like have spoiled us :-( The camera "eye" will always see colors the human eye can't see. It's a rods and cones thing.

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/questio...

I still think the thrill of seeing the "object" in "real" time, aside from distance and the the speed of light of course, makes personal scope viewing more thrilling than the colors from tech images.

Also theres a technique called "Averted Vision" that might make your scope viewing more satisfying. It's too complicated (for me) to explain here but it also involves rods and cones. There's a good bit about it here, in case you're unfamiliar with it :-) and interested.

http://sctscopes.net/Observing_with_an_S...

And if none of this helps perhaps you'd benefit from doing some astro photography. A little expensive but some folks really get off on it.

Answer 3

When you look at Jupiter through your telescope, your eyes are adjusted to the dark, which means that the b/w sensors are more sensitive and the colour sensors are less so. As a result everything looks washed out. NASA use cameras which are more sensitive to colour so they will see the red of the spot more.