Double Transit of Jovian Moons?

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kayheem
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Location: Sennet Estate

Double Transit of Jovian Moons?

Post by kayheem »

Hi all,

I whipped out my trusty C5 tonight at about 2215 hrs to have a peek at Jupiter. There was thin haze, but I thought I saw 2 shadow transits. 1 was like a small disc and more obvious. The other was smaller, like a point. It was visible using my 9mm ortho with and without my 2X barlow (approx 125X and 250X)

Both were lying in a line just below and parallel to the SEB.

Did anyone else see that? I have never witnessed a double transit before and was not sure the smaller dot was a transit as well.

I let my scope cool off for about 15 min. The view was slightly improved and the 2 shadows were still there.

Does anyone have a software to confirm what I saw?

Thanks!

Kay Heem
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Airconvent
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Post by Airconvent »

HI Kay Heem,
SMS'd Wei Xing who is on site right now observing and he confirmed there were indeed 2 moons transiting. I think he managed to capture it on his camera. Let's wait and see for him to return from his session and upload his effort onto singastro...

wei xing : how? :wink:

rich
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before
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weixing
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Favourite scope: Vixen R200SS & Celestron 6" F5 Achro Refractor
Location: (Tampines) Earth of Solar System in Orion Arm of Milky Way Galaxy in Local Group Galaxies Cluster

Post by weixing »

Hi,
I have done a quick stacking of 40 images and simple image processing on the images of jupiter using RegiStax2. The images were taken from 21 Feb 2004 23:03 to 23:12. I have upload the image in the album - http://www.singastro.org/album_pic.php?pic_id=66

Initially, I thought it was a moon and it shadow, but after some observation and from the image capture, I think it is more likely the shadow of two moons, but I don't know which two. Can anyone confirm this?

Have a nice day.
Yang Weixing
:mrgreen: "The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." :mrgreen:
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chrisyeo
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Post by chrisyeo »

Hi Weixing, Keyheem,

I happened to see the transit too, but I didn't spend much time and didn't see the 2nd shadow that you all reported.

Anyway, I took this pic off StarryNightBackyard. It shows Jupiter at 11:10pm and I've put Weixing's photo beside for comparison (resized and flipped)

Image

From the looks of it, the dark ovals in the cloud bands don't seem to show up, but Ganymede looks like its just in the right spot, so I think the 'double transit' you all saw appears to be Ganymede itself and its shadow.

p.s. There's great detail in the photo! Maybe its just me, but the bright oval in the top right corner seems to have been captured!
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weixing
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Favourite scope: Vixen R200SS & Celestron 6" F5 Achro Refractor
Location: (Tampines) Earth of Solar System in Orion Arm of Milky Way Galaxy in Local Group Galaxies Cluster

Post by weixing »

Hi,
Yes.. I think you are right. I remember that around 2 hour later, debash who was with me during the observation ask me to see the moon moving out of jupiter.... :)

Have a nice day.
Yang Weixing
:mrgreen: "The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." :mrgreen:
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