Howard wrote:

Or do you only want to have video of the event?

Although a before and after pic will get the point across, I'm planning to use my Meade DSI or DSI-C in low-res video mode. Motion is key feature of the observation.

Could you tell us what your parameters for visual observations will be. ie: magnification, will Jupiter be in the FOV etc.

Howard, since the first opportunity is in May, I hadn't given that much thought. I didn't do the small angle distance computation between satellite and Jupiter to guage an object framing TFOV. Roughly estimating using a max apparent size of 50" for the Jupiter disk at opposition and that target satellite is usually between 1 and 4 apparent Jupiter disks from Jupiter, I'm guesstimating a 5 arcmin TFOV would do it and capture at least one or two other Galiean moons in the process. For visual, I plan to start with the basic mid-range power of 10x to 17x per inch of apeture (100-170x power in my 10 inch, 1100 mm/fl Newt). For my scope that's about a 7mm to 10mm lens giving a TFOV of 28 and 48 arcmins respectively. Since Jupiter will be low on the horizon with high turbulence, there isn't much call to think in terms of bumping up the power. I haven't given any thought to the split distance for lower-power binocular. For some of the eclipse reappearance (EcR, emersion) events, will the satellite be too close to Jupiter so a visual observer will not be able to split it from the disk? IMHO, this will not be a problem. At most it might occur on the near opposition events in July. For photographic, at my fl of 1100mm, a Meade DSI gives an 11 x 15 arcmin TFOV on direct projection, which is suited for the target. If that doesn't work well, I'll probably switch to a 700 mm/fl refractor in order to get the entire Jovain system framed on the chip. - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ