Early morning Venus & Jupiter's moons.

Up early this morning, Jupiter & Venus out to the East.

Its been ages since I've seen such a splendid display of these two luminaries.

Venus to the lower left was a bit shy and I had to wait a few minutes before she untangled herself from a nearby tree.

Jupiter was high and bright and sparkling.

With the little red Vixen on Jovian watch I could clearly make out all four of those Galilean satellites. 

Named as they are after Galileo Galilei , the first person to possibly see them telescopically.

Galileo's telescope was a toy by even modern "toy" standards, but it did afford him that unique first peep at those merry dancing moons of Jupiter.

With Vixen and my phone camera I was able to capture a photo. 

They were all lined up on one side of Jupiter, this would have been about 05h20m BST. 

The moons in order of alignment this morning were: 

Ganymede - Callisto - Europa - Io

Interestingly Callisto stood out as the dimmest of the group.