I watched Jupiter as a child, through a 4-5 inch refractor. It was my favorite celestial object. (Saturn wrought its rings against me at the time so it was nothing but a blob.) The disc of Jupiter blinds out background stars so that its four moons are clearly distinguishable. Jupiter’s belts are clear, it’s a striped planet. And its red spot. All in much fainter colors that are here enhanced.

What’s great with Jupiter is its fast rotation and its fast moons. During the same night, Jupiter revolves 180+ degrees. One can see the red spot move from hour to hour. And its quick moons change their constellation. The state of Jupiter’s moons (and the red spot?) was in the 18th century suggested as a solution for time keeping before reliable mechanical clocks were engineered. The problem to be solved being the longitude of a ship at sea. But it was of course very impractical to make astronomical observations with a telescope on a ship, the half of the time that Jupiter is in the night sky, disregarding weather. They should’ve gone with the pulsar clock.

Aliens that pass through must be jealous.