Observing Jupiter

[Gary]

In a few hrs, Europa's shadow transit 4:02am-5:40am. Great Red Spot 3:30am-6:40am. Pic of GRS near shadow at about 4:50am:

[Gary]

Jupiter's Great "Red" Spot & shadow transits visible tonight (6 Nov) till early morning tomorrow.

- GRS 23:10 - 02:33.
- Ganymede shadow 22:18 - 01:22
- Io shadow 03:37 - 05:51 (7 Nov)

GRS will "pose" with nearby Ganymede's shadow around midnight


Image credit: WinJUPOS. At about 00:45am 7 Nov local time.

It has also been said that albedo features on galilean moons may be more visible when these moons are transiting across the disc of Jupiter. So do give that a try if you are up for a visual challenge.

[Great Red Spot]

Hi Gary, I was viewing Jupiter on 7 Dec 2013. At about 1:16am, just as when Ganymede's shadow was about to leave Jupiter, something came in from the other end. It was a tiny white dot when it touched Jupiter, then it became like a shadow of a moon transit. Any idea if that was Io?

Alvin

[Gary]

Hi Gary, I was viewing Jupiter on 7 Dec 2013. At about 1:16am, just as when Ganymede's shadow was about to leave Jupiter, something came in from the other end. It was a tiny white dot when it touched Jupiter, then it became like a shadow of a moon transit. Any idea if that was Io?

Alvin

Hi Alvin. The tiny white dot at about 1:16am 7 Dec is Ganymede itself. Then the shadow-like image *may* be Ganymede itself (not a shadow of any nearby galilean moons) continuing its transit across the bright disc of Jupiter. Io and its shadow is too far away by then.

What telescope and magnification where you using? It is on a tracking or non-tracking mount? There may be a chance that your eyepiece may have some dusty or dirt particles that created this dark patch after Ganymede's shadow transit is over.

Btw, while double checking about this now, I think I made a mistake. There was no Io shadow transit during that period. May have made a mistake in UT time conversion.

[Great Red Spot]

Thanks, Gary, for your reply.

I was using a C6 and Orion Starshoot IV. I was looking at my laptop screen all the time. Had about 10GB worth of Jupiter videos that night.

I started observing Jupiter at 11+pm on 6 Dec 2013. There was already a moon shadow on Jupiter. But no white dot. Approaching 1:05am that shadow moved to the edge of Jupiter. Then came the white dot from where that shadow came from. That white dot then became a shadow and moved across Jupiter like the first shadow. So I suspect these are two different objects.

I have attached a picture. The movement of Ganymede was from right to left.

Alvin

[Gary]

Awesome shot Alvin! Congrats! Very impressive for a Celestron 6-inch SCT!

I have done some quick edits on it to reveal slightly more details in return for more noise. Hope you don't mind.



Have fun post-processing your data and upload them to online photo albums in higher resolution/size!

[antares2063]

nice shot ,..looks like Jupiter developed a blister/boil =) and the shadow even shows some elongation..cool

regards,
Junwei

[Gary]

Jupiter tonight.

Jupiter 21:08 - 09:19.
Great Red Spot 20:45 - 23:56.
Io's shadow 22:06 - 00:19.

Time to observe/image "pimple" + shadow + GRS again!

[Great Red Spot]

Thanks, Gary! It's a pain trying to strike the right balance between detail and noise

So I was also told by others that the white dot was Ganymede itself and the black dot was its shadow.

[Gary]

Jupiter tonight at about 9:36pm. Altitude: 14°. Azimuth: 247° [ENE].

Io Ganymede flanking Jupiter very closely. Europa "on top" of Callisto (depending on the orientation of the telescope design).