Boy! Saturn with no rings, the Sun with no spots and now Jupiter's satellites are going away. Just who's running this solar system anyway?!? :) On 11 Jul 2009, at 07:34, Jay Eads wrote:
Jim's post on viewing Jupiter and my own experience on Thursday night of watching Europa emerge from behind Jupiter reminded me that on the night of September 2nd and 3rd, of this year the Galilean moons will not be visible for around 2 hours. This last occurred on May 21st, 2008. According to this article from MSNBC:
"If you miss out seeing Jupiter without satellites, you can at least be consoled in knowing that there will be another, much better chance less than 16 months from now, on the night of September 2-3, 2009. That event will take place in the middle of the night for North America, with Jupiter appearing well up in the southern sky. And best of all, the four moons will be out of sight for almost two hours."