Can galilean moons be seen with naked eye? will they appear to be so close to jupiter when seen with naked eye

Question

will they appear to be so close to jupiter when seen with naked eye and through a small 4x telescope? How close they will appear to jupiter when see with naked eye or through a small 4x telescope?

Answer 1

You can't see them with the naked eye unless you have eagle like eyesight.  But any small telescope or binoculars work perfect for seing them.  They are close to Jupiter but they are also very bright when viewed through a telescope.  Should be able to see the four but sometimes one or two are blocked out by Jupiter.  Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Naked eye = no.  They are bright enough, in the vicinity of magnitude 5.5 (The human eye under perfect viewing conditions can see stars as faint as magnitude 6.5), however, Jupiter simply outshines them.

I once read an article asking if it were possible many centuries ago, before light pollution, and when (suppossedly) humans had more keen eyesight.  Even then, if the person with the best eyes,  could see something peculiar (moons of Jupiter, phases of venus) and they said something about it, the remaining population would say that person is crazy, or is seeing things, or is a witch.  (Signs of the times).  Still, the four large moons of Jupiter are quite faint, (in comparison) and are so close to the much brighter large planet, that it might compare to trying to see a dim star "next" to a full moon.  The shine and glare would wash the fainter object out.

A 4x should help, but I'm not sure.  I have a 4.5 inch reflector telescope, that I've had for 20 years,  and I'm still getting my money's worth out of it.  It's great for spotting Ganymeade, Callisto, Io, and Europa!  So you do not need an incredibly large scope for these objects.

Answer 3

No.  You will want more than 4x.  They can barely be seen with a good 7x  binocular.  A good 10 x 70 binocular will show them clearly.

Answer 4

They are not visible to the naked eye but they could be. They are not visible to the naked eye because the glare of Jupiter overpowers the 4 Galilean moons. Just a simple pair of binoculars can see these 4 satellites and even make Jupiter into a disk. You may be able to do the same.

Hope this helps!