Jupiter has lost a band!

[Airconvent]

Check out the news here from Space.com

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/j ... 00513.html

[rlow]

Wow, that's interesting! No more double bands in small scopes for now. For a moment, before I read the link, I thought that Rich1 is trying to put out a joke on us.

[weixing]

Hi,
Wow! That's quite amazing!! That's why I always said if you want see astronomy "LIVE" in action, look at Jupiter.

Anyway, saw some article that this is not the first time that the south equatorial belt (SEB) had disappeared... it's happen in 1973 and early 1990.

Have a nice day.

[jiahao1986]

good news is that it would be easier for small scope owners to spot the great red spot

[starfinder]

I saw that the SEB was missing in late April whilst observing Jupiter and posted about it here:
http://www.singastro.org/viewtopic.php?p=59109#59109


Here is an image of Jupiter taken at that time, but the quality is poor as the conditions weren't good then. However, the missing belt was very evident visually as well as in the images:

[Bergkamp_]

=s

[starfinder]

Here is an earlier image of Jupiter which I took on 3 April 2010, the first I'd taken this season.

The missing SEB stood out:



(Image at original size, not enlarged)


I've not managed to observe/image Jupiter in the past week due to the heavy cloud cover.

[Airconvent]

Here is an earlier image of Jupiter which I took on 3 April 2010, the first I'd taken this season.

The missing SEB stood out:



(Image at original size, not enlarged)


I've not managed to observe/image Jupiter in the past week due to the heavy cloud cover.

cool Gavin. Its now easier to image and see the great red spot! Let's catch it before it disappears also !! haha ..