"Jupiter 1" 11/11/99 Kitt Peak, Arizona
(Image by Adam Block, Willis Greiner and Cheryl Price. Copyright NOAO, all rights reserved.)

This CCD image was obtained using a 16" Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope operating at f/10. The camera used was a SBIG ST-8; sky chart software was Software Bisque's The Sky, acquisition and image manipulation software was Cyanogen's Maxim DL. Ten exposures were taken through each of three filters; blue, green and red. The best image from each filter "run" was chosen; the three separate color images were combined to form a raw combined color image. Dark and flat-field exposures were taken and applied to the raw images. An unsharp-mask computer routine was then applied to the combined data, resulting in the final color image shown here.

Jupiter, of course, is the largest of the planets in our Solar System. It is shown here with one of the Galilean moons, and the planet itself displays many stripes, festoons of "erupting" gases and the famous "Giant Red Spot." A few years back Jupiter was hit by Comet Shoemaker-Levy. Even that small object left obvious and visible scars on the "surface" of the planet; these scars were seen for weeks after the impact. (Actually, Jupiter has no real surface. It is probably no "harder" than jello!) I have included two very similar images of Jupiter; the only difference is the color balance and brightness. You decide which one is superior.