This is a great idea: take a long exposure photo to see Jupiter’s moons and (without moving the telescope) take a…

This is a great idea: take a long exposure photo to see Jupiter’s moons and (without moving the telescope) take a short exposure to see Earth’s moon without over-exposing it. The result is this cool image that has the sizes and separation correct but the brightnesses falsely altered so we can see the whole scene.

Originally shared by Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD)

Moons and Jupiter

Image Credit & Copyright: Phillip A Cruden

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160303.html

Some of the Solar System’s largest moons rose together on February 23. On that night, a twilight pairing of a waning gibbous Moon and Jupiter was captured in this sharp telescopic field of view. The composite of short and long exposures reveals the familiar face of our fair planet’s own large natural satellite, along with a line up of the ruling gas giant’s four Galilean moons. Left to right, the tiny pinpricks of light are Callisto, Io, Ganymede, [Jupiter], and Europa. Closer and brighter, our own natural satellite appears to loom large. But Callisto, Io, and Ganymede are actually larger than Earth’s Moon, while water world Europa is only slightly smaller. In fact, of the Solar System’s six largest planetary satellites, only Saturn’s moon Titan is missing from the scene.