--- David L Bennett <dlbennett@mac.com> wrote:
P.S. Does anyone know if there are ever quadruple shadow transits on Jupiter?
Dave: Get a copy of "Mathematical Astronomy Morsels" by Jean Meeus (Willmann-Bell 1997). It has several chapters on phenomenon of Jupiter's satellites. I can give you a short answer to your question which is "No", because the first three moons have orbits that disallow more than two of them being in transit at the same time. so you can have any two of I, II and III together with IV, but not all four at the same time. You can have what is called "Jupiter without moons", which is all four in either transit, ecclipse or occultation. There is such an event scheduled for May 22, 2008 I in ecclipse. II in transit. III in occultation. IV in ecclipse. By the way, Jean Meeus occasionally postes on the Yahoo group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpml/ Which is a great list to belong to. Clear Skies Daniel Turner. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html