First sighting of Jupiter

[Truffle]

Hi I'm new here, and quite excited cos last night I saw, for the first time through my Meade telescope, Jupiter and four moons It was more by luck than judgement cos I've never been able to get the telescope set correctly (whenever I try to get it to 'go to' something in its database, it always seems way off).

Anyhow, after much searching I finally found it. I must admit I was quite overwhelmed to see it. It looked... majestic.

Jupiter appeared as a sort of whitish-cream coloured disc with two orangey stripes across it. The four moons appeared all in a line to the right of the planet (I'm guessing it was the four Gallilean moons I could see?) and I have a question about that - would they always appear in that position or could they appear differently depending on when I viewed them? It was amazing to see them all in a line like that. (I only wish I could have photographed it somehow)

Truffle xx

[Michael Steen]

Truffle, congratulations on a thrilling moment!! The first view of the moon's craters, Saturns rings, and Jupiter's cloud bands is always a memorable one.
Yes, you did see the 4 Gallilean moons, and no, they don't always stay in that cofiguration. They orbit their planet, quite rapidly in fact, and their positions change hour by hour. In fact, oftentimes one of them will move in front of Jupiter and cast a shadow going across; it's called a transit. I don't know where you are, but here in Pennsylvania, at about 10:00 PM on July 31st, Europa is scheduled to transit the planet's face.
If I have good seeing here, I'm going to try to catch it.
BTW, Jupiter will look really good now for the next few months because it's at opposition (like a full moon alignment), and will be the closest to us it's going to be for some time.