Multiple Shadow Transits on Jupiter - 30 Oct 2013

[Gary]

Jupiter visible now! Double shadow transits still going on. Eastern sky clearing!

[Gary]

@Mystiq - Yes this is the most appropriate thread to share your visual reports.

CONGRATS on seeing something quite rare so early in your astro "career"! Indeed, something very special about seeing these views live with your own eyes.

Though Jupiter was visible, there's still a faint small halo around it throughout the morning. Only managed to do about 190x on my MN56 just now. But still the shadow dot is distinct. By the time I realised the sky was clear enough, there wasn't enough time to set up the dob to catch even one shadow. So set up the MN56 in record time near my house and manage to catch at least Io's shadow (consolation prize ).

Quite an interesting view to see only 2 moons of Jupiter visible - one on each side.

Tried shooting Jupiter after the shadow transit at about 3:55am with handheld phone through MN56 for the first time. At about 190x magnification (20mm eyepiece + 5x barlow). This is the result after image compression by Twitter. Cropped only, no further image edit.



7 more days to the next attempt!

[depardeuz]

Nice nice!!

[yltansg]

Congrats Gary !

@Mystiq - Yes this is the most appropriate thread to share your visual reports.

CONGRATS on seeing something quite rare so early in your astro "career"! Indeed, something very special about seeing these views live with your own eyes.

Though Jupiter was visible, there's still a faint small halo around it throughout the morning. Only managed to do about 190x on my MN56 just now. But still the shadow dot is distinct. By the time I realised the sky was clear enough, there wasn't enough time to set up the dob to catch even one shadow. So set up the MN56 in record time near my house and manage to catch at least Io's shadow (consolation prize ).

Quite an interesting view to see only 2 moons of Jupiter visible - one on each side.

Tried shooting Jupiter after the shadow transit at about 3:55am with handheld phone through MN56 for the first time. At about 190x magnification (20mm eyepiece + 5x barlow). This is the result after image compression by Twitter. Cropped only, no further image edit.



7 more days to the next attempt!

[antares2063]

nice...congrats to those who witnessed it.

[Gary]

Thanks Alfred & Junwei. Managed to see Io's shadow right at the edge during egress at about 3:39am. Which is very close to WinJUPOS prediction of 3:40am. The difference is most probably due to potential inaccuracies in my analogue watch and not feeding more accurate GPS co-ordinates of my exact observing spot into WinJUPOS. Very impressed with the predictive accuracy.

[Gary]

There will be another rare double shadow transit across Jupiter early tomorrow morning.

Date: Wednesday 23 October 2013
Time: 03:22am - 05:34am
Location of Jupiter: East North East (ENE)
Jupiter rising above horizon: 00:23am (23 Oct 2013)

The two shadows will be casted by the two moons of Jupiter - Io and Europa.

Europa Shadow Transit: 03:19am - 05:56am
Io Shadow Transit: 03:22am - 05:33am




Compared to the previous double shadow transit last Wednesday, Jupiter will be in a higher 56° altitude - displaying the shadow transits through thinner atmosphere for a clearer view.

Some double transits happens far apart - one about to disappear (egress) while the other just appeared (ingress). For tomorrow's transits, their ingress timings are very near to one another. They are only about 3 minutes apart. This means we can potentially observe or photograph these transits for a much longer time across the disc of Jupiter - 2 hours and 12 minutes!

[Gary]

Weather permitting, the last double shadow transit will be visible in Singapore tomorrow for October 2013.

Date: Wednesday 30 October 2013
Time: 5:56am - 7:28am
Location of Jupiter: North near 69° above horizon
Jupiter rising above horizon: 23:56pm (29 Oct 2013)

The two shadows will be casted by the two moons of Jupiter - Io and Europa.

Io Shadow Transit: 5:15am - 7:28am
Europa Shadow Transit: 5:56am - 8:33am


When the double shadow transits occur, Jupiter will be very high up in the northern sky (69°) where the atmosphere is thinner compared to the horizon. This is the best position so far for the past three shadow transits offering potentially the clearest view.

For those who do not wish to stay up all night, you can get your telescope ready, go to sleep early, set your alarm to wake up at around 6:00am and start enjoying the view. If the weather is clear enough, you can still observe Jupiter until at least 7:00am when the sky turns blue! That's how bright Jupiter can be if you know where to look for it.

Don't forget to enjoy the beautiful thin crescent Moon right beside Mars! And for those who are more ambitious, you may hunt for Comet ISON visually through telescopes or with your camera and lenses.

Northeast monsoon is fast approaching. Next few shadow transits over the next few months may not be visible due to potential bad weather.

Clear skies and good luck to all shadow hunters!