Tonight (27th July) is a very busy night on Jupiter with 3 events worth observing and imaging.

All times in AEST.

1. The Wesley Impact Scar will be visible between about 10pm and midnight. It transits the CM at about 10:40pm.
2. Also tonight, at 11:24pm (lasting for about 8 minutes), Io’s shadow eclipses Europa.
3. Then later, at 12:14am (lasting for about 8 minutes), Io occults (passes in front of) Europa.

Io and Europa will be the two closest moons to Jupiter, to the West of the gas giant. You won’t be able miss them!

A very busy night worth staying up for. I’ll be out amongst it – skies will be clear, hoping for good seeing!

Good luck for steady seeing at your place!

After breaking the news of Anthony Wesley’s discovery of an impact scar on Jupiter on Monday morning (while I was waiting to board a plane to Melbourne), Friday night was my first opportunity to capture an image of the now famous “Wesley Impact Scar”, or “Bird Strike” (Anthony’s forum name is “bird”).

Jupiter, GRS and Wesley Impact Scar (right on the limb, top right)

The image above shows the GRS just past the Central Meridian (CM), and the Impact Scar is just coming into view, on the top right of the image.

I’d been in Melbourne all week and was very frustrated to have not been able to capture an image of it until now. On Friday night, 24th July, the impact scar was transitting while Jupiter was almost right overhead, but unfortunately the seeing conditions were only average, and deteriorated even further as the Bird Strike came more into view.

Please continue reading to see another image from the session.

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