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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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!

UPDATE: See below for a new colour image of Io and Ganymede.

This morning I was able to capture my first Galilean Moon occultation, when Ganymede passed in front of Io, covering about 40% of the volanic moon.

The seeing was reasonably stable, maybe 6.5/10 and the morning started off beautiful and clear. Some cloud bands came through right at the wrong time, ruining some of the sequences right in the middle of the occultation. Of course it cleared completely after the event was all over.

Despite the annoying clouds almost ruining my chances of capturing anything of the occultation, I was able to image enough of the event to put together this 32-frame animation, covering 33 minutes of elapsed time. Detail and albedo features can be seen on both moons. Click the image to play the animation.

Ganymede Occulting Io - click to play

Continue reading to find about my capture and processing settings for this event, and why it’s even so special at all.

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This morning there was a beautiful conjunction featuring the waning Crescent Moon and Jupiter, less than 2° away. 

Looking through the eyepiece at Jupiter, she appeared to have an extra moon in an odd position – in fact it was a field star, HIP105256. The Galilean Moons were close by – Io was right next to Jupiter, with Europa and Callisto a little further away. Ganymede was in transit but was not observed.

I was able to fit the pairing in the field of view of my Canon 350D when attached at prime focus to my Saxon ED80, so I snapped off a few images before heading to work. Unfortunately I didn’t nail the focus and didn’t notice until I’d finished.

Please click the image to see the full-size.

Moon, Jupiter and Stars Conjunction. Click image for full-size.

While viewing the images on the train, I noticed that the star 29Cap was egressing from being occulted by the Moon. So I combined 8 frames into an animation showing the motion of the Moon through the stars.

Please read on to see the animation and to read more about the image.

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New images of Jupiter are always news-worthy, and this is no exception. I received an interesting link on the ALPO_Jupiter yahoo group the other day – it’s a pretty fascinating animation showing Ganymede being occulted by Jupiter.

Here’s a still from the movie:

(NASA, ESA and Erich Karkoschka - University of Arizona)

Read on to see the animation and to see one of my own images taken just a couple of hours later after the Hubble image above!
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