Jool visible(ish) from Kerbin?

[The Solar Gamer]

I was getting ready to test an interplanetary vehicle when I saw a green flicker in the sky.

Obviously it is just a pixel, but if you are close enough to the planet Duna, you can see an orange one-dot pixel flicker in the background. So it is possible this could be Jool.

I looked in the map view and it was lined up correctly.

I just thought it was interesting to share this with you haha

Back to making videos!

-The Solar Gamer

[-Gamah]

Based on your screenshots, it doesn't look lined up correctly.

First screenshot indicates Jool is very near vertical, and a little west of the launch site, second shot shows Jool almost *if over the western horizon.

[The Solar Gamer]

In the second image, the KSC is not in picture, the icons are actually on the other side of Kerbin. Jool is in the spot it should be to match the first image. I couldn't get a better picture in Map View.

Edited October 1, 2012 by The Solar Gamer

[JMBuilder]

If you consider the angle of the launch tower and the position of Jool on the map, that's pretty well aligned. It also looks somewhat green-tinged. The icons you guys are seeing are on the OPPOSITE side of what angle of Kerbin you're seeing. You know you can see icons through planets, right?

[Khrissetti]

Well done, SG, it appears that you're the Kerbal equivalent of Galileo!

[Omega500]

I was always wonderign if you could see the other new bobies. I know you can see NImus and the Mun from Kerbin. After looking for the other ones and not really seeign anything that i thought may be one I gave up.

I assummed that cos i wasnt in there SOI they wouldnt show up.

Its the only thing i dont like about KSP now and thats the new skybox.

Blad somone has seen somthing mind

[-Gamah]

In the second image, the KSC is not in picture, the icons are actually on the other side of Kerbin. Jool is in the spot it should be to match the first image. I couldn't get a better picture in Map View.

Touche, I see now I looked at the second image wrong.

[JMBuilder]

A green star. How unique!

[EvilotionCR2]

Well,i didn't see him when i'm on his very very very high orbit...So why you should see him from Kerbin?

[Markus Reese]

very cool! But now like all pioneers in astronomy, let us chastize him for heresy!

It is very cool however. Gratz on noticing it. I was wondering if any other planets were lunar visible as well. Sometimes the size scaling does seem a bit off, so I will have to pay more special attention to the sky!

[henryrasia]

What if you do the ridiculously large zoom from IVA?

[Guest]

It isn't I think its photo shopped with a green pixel =/

~Hugio88

[NickWaterfall]

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Edited December 31, 2015 by NickWaterfall

[draeath]

I imagine your AntiAliasing settings might effect this as well.

[superecnate]

A green star. How unique!

Actually, green stars are very common. Our sun, Sol, is a green star, but our eyes cannot see green stars. To out eyes, no green stars exist.

[The Solar Gamer]

I swear it is not edited haha. It wouldn't take much than a green pixel but it is 100% real. My settings are on max so that could be the reason. Jool is pretty large, it's moon Laythe is roughly the same size as Kerbin, and I'm assuming this was the closest encounter distance from Kerbin to Jool. It could've been a glitch but I thought it was cool.

[vexx32]

Actually, green stars are very common. Our sun, Sol, is a green star, but our eyes cannot see green stars. To out eyes, no green stars exist.

It's classified as a yellow-green star, but it's actual color is white. It only appears yellow because Earth's atmosphere scatters blue light, according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

And IIRC, it's not that we can't see green stars, it's that Earth's atmosphere makes them look yellow or white.

[cardgame]

Sorry to break it to you, but that's not Jool.

Just like the twenty-odd red stars you see from space aren't Duna.

[nhnifong]

I imagine your AntiAliasing settings might effect this as well.

Basically, when a thing is smaller than a pixel, it has a chance of being in the middle of the pixel and controlling the color it resolves to. anti-aliasing isn't that much different, it's just more pixels averaged together with bilinear interpolation.

It's possible that the apparent size of Jool from KSC is about 1/100th of a pixel. It's not impossible to see, just unlikely.

[ddavis425]

Good eye, furthest out I've been able to see Jool was from Duna's orbit. It's easy to tell whether or not it is a planet if you time warp and it doesn't move with the stars. Also it looks like a pixel instead of a smudge.

[cardgame]

If I can't see Jool from its extreme SoI, there's no way you can see it from Duna/Kerbin.

[residenthalo]

Sorry to break it to you, but that's not Jool.

Just like the twenty-odd red stars you see from space aren't Duna.

How can you say that with such confidence?

[cardgame]

Because I was caught in Jool's SoI and still couldn't find it (2x AA, 1650x1080 resolution) and that's about 50 billion (trillion?) meters closer to Jool than Kerbin is.

[nhnifong]

Because I was caught in Jool's SoI and still couldn't find it (2x AA, 1650x1080 resolution) and that's about 50 billion (trillion?) meters closer to Jool than Kerbin is.

Yeah, it can look pretty small even nearby.

But if you are in it's SOI, it's definitely more than a pixel wide. It's always down, typically behind your navball.

[cardgame]

I never corrected my angle to match it, so I was actually orbiting it semi-polarly. Still, I know what I'm doing, been playing as long as you, knew where to look for it. It eventually popped up, but definitely not visible from the extremes of its SoI.