Seth, your Rushmore analogy reminded me of an old Mad Magazine drawing I saw in jr. high. A Park Service employee was being lowered on a rope with hedge clippers to remove a shrub that was growing out of Lincoln's nostril! I saw the impact marks very well in my home-made 10" Newt. There was a period just after sunset, and before twilight, when the atmosphere would be absolutely steady for anywhere from 10 minutes to over 40 on one night. I waited for those windows and just absorbed the view, nightly, for weeks. On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Seth Jarvis <SJarvis@slco.org> wrote:
Yep - I remember being able to just barely see one of the larger black "scars" with my trusty old orange C8 from my back yard in SLC. It was amazing. I'd seen Jupiter through a telescope a zillion times prior to that and its appearance was always the same - until that night. The planet had visibly changed.
Imagine looking at Mt. Rushmore through a telescope for your thousandth time, but on this one observation you saw Lincoln sneeze.
That's how cool S-L 9's impact on Jupiter was.