Observe “three old friends” with the Virtual Telescope
26 June 2009
We all know the revolutionary contribution of Galileo to astronomy and science. Among his most important discoveries were the four main satellites of Jupiter. Tracking them over the years, in December 1612 Galileo was looking at Jupiter and saw the planet Neptune, but confused it for a star. The same happened again in January 1613. Now fast-forward to 2009. After decades of unfavourable conjunctions, Jupiter and Neptune will "meet" again.
The Virtual Telescope is an advanced service provided by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory and managed by Gianluca Masi. It consists in several, robotic telescopes, remotely available in real-time over the internet, both for research and fun. The Virtual Telescope will offer a unique opportunity on 9 - 11 July 2009 and December 2009 to follow this celestial encounter, allowing continuous coverage of the event for several days. This way, it will be also possible to see the Galilean moons moving around Jupiter. The event is of special value, as it happens around the celebration of the 400th anniversary from the first astronomical observation by Galileo!
For more information, please visit: http://virtualtelescope.bellatrixobservatory.org/galileo_jup_nep.html
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