Rain plays spoilsport at KSSTM’s Jupiter opposition sky watching

Nearly 75 children and adults who had reached the Kerala State Science and Technology Museum (KSSTM) at PMG here to see the planet Jupiter at its biggest and brightest during what is called ‘opposition’ on Saturday evening had to return disappointed when rain played spoilsport.

Nearly 75 children and adults who had reached the Kerala State Science and Technology Museum (KSSTM) at PMG here to see the planet Jupiter at its biggest and brightest during what is called ‘opposition’ on Saturday evening had to return disappointed when rain played spoilsport.

The children, some of them young but still old enough to be enamoured by the vast sky and its views, and the adults had been hoping to see a Jupiter at a distance closest to the Earth using the two computerised reflective telescopes at the KSSTM. But that was not to be for rain ruled out any sky observation.

However, the visit did not go in vain entirely for in the hall that houses the museum’s Science on a Sphere display system, they got to see how Jupiter and its four largest moons looked on a six-foot diameter sphere, courtesy four projectors in the hall.

Sarath Prabhav, a science communicator who is also into astro photography, led the session on the opposition when Jupiter will be aligned with Earth and the sun. In simple language he explained what Jupiter being in opposition meant using the sphere. Earth, he said, would be positioned between Earth and the sun. Since Jupiter rises opposite the sun from the east when the sun sets, the arrangement is called opposition. The closest that Jupiter will come to the Earth will be around 5 a.m. on Sunday, but a change of a few hours or even a couple of days will not make much difference, he said.

Since it will be closest to the Earth, it will seem bigger and brighter, he pointed out.

During the interactive session, he also explained Jupiter’s features and those of its moons. He talked about Jupiter’s size, its diameter compared to that of the earth, its mass, its distance from the sun, the ball of gas it is, its atmosphere and what gives the planet its colour, its denser core, rotation and revolution, magnetic field, and the red spot that can be seen on its surface. He also showed how Jupiter’s moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto – looked, their surfaces, how they were discovered by Galileo Galilei, and the possibility of life (or its lack) on them.

Every now and then, he asked questions which the children tried to answer. A few adults also shared information and asked questions about the link between astronomy and astrology.