45 Cap, Europa and Io – Close Approach
Today (3rd/4th August) in parts of Europa, Africa, South America and the Middle East, Jupiter is due to occult the star 45 Cap – something that happens very, very rarely.
For other parts of the world, including mine, the star wasn’t occulted by Jupiter but instead gathered close enough in the field of view for a conjunction with Europa and Io while I was out imaging Jupiter this morning.
Here’s my image from the close approach. 45 Cap is on the far left, Europa is next, and Io (with albedo features) is on the far right.
45 Cap, Europa and Io Close Approach
Europa and Io were on a path to have their own occultation in about an hour from the time the image above was taken, but clouds came and ruined my chance to capture their encounter.
Jupiter images from the session, complete with the Wesley Impact Scar, will be posted later on.
Thanks for looking.
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posted in Astrophotography | 8 Comments
My name is Mike Salway and I'm an amateur astronomer and photographer. I'm the co-founder of 
Here is an image of 45 Capricorni (apmag 5.9) sitting above Ganymede (apmag 4.6).
Going left to right you should see Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and then Callisto, but Io is washed out in this 1 minute exposure.
Image taken by Kevin Heider using “LB-0004 in Pingelly, Western Australia (Observatory code: D24)”
2009-08-04 15:27 UT
45 Capricorni sitting above Ganymede