Well this animation has been a long time coming. Back on the 5th July 2009, Ganymede and Callisto had a close approach – no occultation unfortunately, but it was still great to see them so close together.

Ganymede, at 5,200km diameter (1.7 arcseconds) and Callisto at 4,800 km diameter (1.6 arcseconds) are both over 635 million km away. The seeing was only just above average, but both moons show consistent albedo features throughout many frames of the animation.

Click the image below to view the 15 frame animation which covers just over 2 hours of elapsed time.

Ganymede and Callisto Close Approach Animation. Click to Play.

Please read on to find out more about the capture and processing.

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I had some nice clear skies on the night of the 14th August, 2009 – when Jupiter was at opposition for the 2009 season. Being at opposition means the Sun, Earth and Moon form a straight line – and Jupiter is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit around the Sun, and it appears at its largest – subtending 48.9 arcseconds.

Unfortunately the seeing conditions were below average, but luckily they steadied for a few minutes just before midnight – long enough for me to capture just one run in slightly above average conditions, before the seeing turned bad again.

Jupiter at Opposition, with the GRS rising

Each channel was recorded for 48 seconds, and 600 frames from each were used to make the final RGB image.

Continuing to hope for clear and steady skies – it’s just not coming this year yet.

Thanks for looking.

On Saturday night 8th August, I was able to capture some images of Jupiter with Io and its shadow in transit. The seeing was just above average – good enough to capture albedo features on Io, including the dark polar regions in contrast against the cloud tops of Jupiter.

The best image from the session is below. Io and it’s shadow are seen on the left, the Wesley Impact Scar is at top left just setting, and Oval BA is on the top right just rising.

Jupiter, Io and Shadow Transit

Please continue reading to see a 6-frame animation of all of the images from the night.

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This post will highlight what’s happening at Jupiter during August, 2009 – including when and where you can observe Jupiter, opposition date, and dates and times for other interesting events for observers and imagers, such as Galilean Moon mutual events (occultations and eclipses).

Jupiter at Opposition in July 2008

Please continue reading for all of the information.

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Last night started like every other – typically below average seeing, but instead of going back to bed, I waited it out – hoping it would get better. And it did!

The seeing peaked at 7 – 7.5/10, on a night when there was a fair bit going on. The GRS transited earlier, followed by the Wesley Impact Scar, along with Ganymede’s shadow and then Ganymede itself.

The image below is the first one I’ve finished processing, and is one of the last of the session. It shows the Wesley Impact Scar at top left, and Ganymede’s shadow and Ganymede on the right.

Jupiter, Ganymede and Shadow

The “Bird Strike” has really elongated out over the past few days, as it gets torn by the jetstream.

Continue reading for more..

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Hi all

On the night of the 3rd August, what started as typically below average seeing, finally improved as the seeing reached a respectable almost 7/10 and gave some of my best views of Jupiter this year.

I was able to catch the 6th magnitude star 45 Cap in the same field of view as Europa and Io, which was a nice surprise.

Below is my best image from the night – the second last capture of the night. The seeing was improving nicely, but high cloud and then thick cloud brought my night to an end.

Jupiter with Wesley Impact Scar

The Wesley Impact Scar can be seen on the upper left of the planet, just about to rotate off. There’s one more image from earlier in the session, when the impact scar was at mid transit. Continue reading for more.

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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.

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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In breaking news, Anthony Wesley from Canberra, Australia looks to have captured a new impact spot on Jupiter.

Anthony’s image below shows the new dark spot in the South Polar Region (SPR) of Jupiter, at approximately 216° longitude in System 2. It looks very similar to the impact marks made on Jupiter when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into the gas giant in 1994.

New Impact Spot, imaged by Anthony Wesley

You can read Anthony’s commentary about the image and see other images from the session at Anthony’s temporary website, and you can join in the discussions with Anthony on this forum thread on IceInSpace.

Dr John Rogers, Jupiter Section Director of the British Astronomical Association, seems to confirm opinion that it is an impact site. He says:

Congratulations on this amazing discovery — I agree with you and everyone else that this is an impact site, with a blur to the NW indicating the direction of the trajectory. The location was featureless in your even-higher-resolution image 2 days earlier.

In the latest news (9pm AEST), Glenn Orton of the JPL is imaging the site now with the NASA Infrared Telescope and he’s just told Anthony it’s an impact. So I guess that’s official!!

News of Anthony’s discovery has gone around the globe like wildfire today. It was all over twitter, it’s been published on the Bad Astronomy Blog, Universe Today, SlashDot (which killed Anthony’s webserver!), SpaceWeather and more.

The list below shows the times (in UT) when the impact mark will be visible again (generated in WinJupos by Hans-Joerg Mettig.

----------------------------------------------------------
2009 Jul 19 06:09 ( 216°) 16:05 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 20 02:00 ( 216°) 11:56 ( 216°) 21:52 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 21 07:47 ( 216°) 17:43 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 22 03:38 ( 216°) 13:34 ( 216°) 23:30 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 23 09:25 ( 216°) 19:21 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 24 05:16 ( 216°) 15:12 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 25 01:08 ( 216°) 11:03 ( 216°) 20:59 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 26 06:54 ( 216°) 16:50 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 27 02:45 ( 216°) 12:41 ( 216°) 22:37 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 28 08:32 ( 216°) 18:28 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 29 04:23 ( 216°) 14:19 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 30 00:15 ( 216°) 10:10 ( 216°) 20:06 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 31 06:01 ( 216°) 15:57 ( 216°)
----------------------------------------------------------

If you get the opportunity to observe or image this potential new discovery, please do so! This will be amazing for Anthony and wish him luck!

My heart-felt congratulations to my good friend Anthony. This recognition today is so well deserved after all his hard work over the last few years – he’s found himself in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills to not only capture this image, but to acknowledge that he’s just recorded something special and send it around to the right people.

I don’t think he’s slept at all today but I’m sure he’s living on adrenalin right now. I’m glad to have been able to help him spread the word about his amazing discovery.

Stay tuned for more news and images as it comes to hand.