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Watching Jupiter change position over 4 weeks really clicked for me
I set up my binoculars on the same fence post every night for a month and tracked Jupiter moving against the background stars. It's one thing to read about orbits, but seeing it shift almost a full moon-width in that time made it feel real. Anyone else do little backyard experiments like this?
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vals3820d agoTop Commenter
Ha, I love that! I did something similar with the moon once, just watching it creep through the zodiac over a couple weeks. Ended up drawing little sketches in a notebook to keep track. It really does make you feel like you're on a big spinning rock out in space.
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the_michael15d ago
You know what's crazy about that moon tracking thing though, did you notice how your sketches changed depending on where you were looking from? Like I tried doing the same thing from my back porch but there's this one tree that blocked the view for like three nights in a row, and I thought the moon was messing up its cycle or something. Made me realize how much our little ground level view distorts everything. Were you watching from the exact same spot each night or moving around?
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