We Hereby Lay Claim to Jupiter

There's a planet you may have heard of; it’s called Jupiter. It’s sort of a huge cloud globule between 483 million and 576 million miles away. It’s fascinating to look at in books, what with the big red zit (some mundanely refer to it as a “spot”) and the clouds and what not.

Some guy calling himself, Galileo Galilei, claims to have seen it back in 1610, but we all know that’s bunk. On the other hand, I have seen Jupiter and its four largest moons.

June, turning 6 last Tuesday, received a telescope for her birthday. We eagerly assembled the equipment then waited for evening to arrive. How I kicked myself that evening when I futiley searched the sky far and wide for any sign of our closest celestial body—the moon. New moon started on Monday. If you’re planning on getting one of these optical delights, make sure you open it on a day the moon is not new—full preferably.

Absent the big cheese, we decided to point our lens at other things instead. We found a beautiful binary star (that’s “two stars in love” as my astronomy teacher used to say—they actually ‘orbit’ one another) that looks like a single star to the unaided eye.

We also found this chunky blob in the eastern sky—bright as can be. So, we pointed our telescope at it and this is what we saw:



See those little dots? Those are moons. June and I observed Jupiter for nearly an hour before we decided to call it a night and return to our beds. After June was tucked in, I could only think of Alma 30:44.

If any of you want to see my June’s cool telescope, come on over, I’ll show you Jupiter…it’s in my backyard. I officially claim it for Cazier.