Did anybody have good seeing last night? I saw all three shadows of Jupiter's moons but could only use 100-125X due to mediocre seeing. It seemed that seeing was better around 8:30 to 9:00. I saw very clearly the Great Red Spot around 8:45 then went in the house till 12:45. Also tried to split Epsilon Canis Majoris but only saw a spike from the secondary. I need better conditions for this double. Debbie
On the East side of Salt Lake Valley, we had sprinkles all evening with a heavy stretch of rain about 10 PM. I was afraid to put a scope outside to cool down, since there was a strong likelihood of soaking the thing. Gave up about 11, with no indication of clearing ahead. Anybody else have any luck? Michael
Did anybody have good seeing last night? I saw all three shadows of Jupiter's moons but could only use 100-125X due to mediocre seeing. It seemed that seeing was better around 8:30 to 9:00. I saw very clearly the Great Red Spot around 8:45 then went in the house till 12:45. Also tried to split Epsilon Canis Majoris but only saw a spike from the secondary. I need better conditions for this double.
Debbie _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
It was quite a successful event at Stansbury Park last night despite a last minute band clouds that threatened to cover the triple transit portion of the event. The actual star party was poorly attended (both by public and members) due to the snow and rain in Salt Lake. We viewed the event through the clubs 16" Cassegrain, Patrick's 8" Brandt refractor (w/a binoviewer), Kim Hyatt's 5" Meade refractor & Celestron Ultima, & Siegfried's 8" Clark refractor. Don Colton was also imaging Jupiter using a Phillips ToUcam and Registax. Most people were able to see all three shadows quite easily and Ganymede directly. There were many comments as to how distinct Ganymede appeared against the lighter Jupiter background above the North Equatorial Belt. It took us a while to realize it was not a storm swirl (or even a shadow). Io was the toughest to see sitting itself directly along the NEB. Occasionally the seeing would steady enough to glimpse it's little scallop against the darker band. After the event, several of us headed off to the truck stop for a bite to eat before the drive back home. Dave P.S. Does anyone know if there are ever quadruple shadow transits on Jupiter? On Sunday, March 28, 2004, at 10:45 AM, Michael Carnes wrote:
On the East side of Salt Lake Valley, we had sprinkles all evening with a heavy stretch of rain about 10 PM. I was afraid to put a scope outside to cool down, since there was a strong likelihood of soaking the thing. Gave up about 11, with no indication of clearing ahead. Anybody else have any luck?
Michael
Did anybody have good seeing last night? I saw all three shadows of Jupiter's moons but could only use 100-125X due to mediocre seeing. It seemed that seeing was better around 8:30 to 9:00. I saw very clearly the Great Red Spot around 8:45 then went in the house till 12:45. Also tried to split Epsilon Canis Majoris but only saw a spike from the secondary. I need better conditions for this double.
Debbie
--- 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
The 5 transits were made all the better by two huge festoons. They were so prominent and close together that at first I thought I was seeing the Great Red Spot but then realized they were too far north. But my most memorable part occurred 3 or maybe 4 minutes before the third shadow was about to make its appearance and a huge band of thick clouds just appeared from out of no where and spoiled the view. It was so bad that we actually stared stowing the refractor. We had it in its stowed position and had the dust covers on and the eyepieces removed when I happened to walk outside and look up to see that the cloud bank had vanished and the sky was clear! Those still closing the scope in the refractor bay were surprised when I ran back in exclaiming and pointing at the sky (which they could not see since the interior white lights had been brought up). We got the scope back on line and Jupiter back in view just as the final shadow moved onto Jupiter's cloud tops. Fun experience! Patrick
Aloha NADA here on Maui, we had clearing skys BUT we had a heavy VOG layer and seeing was very so-so, also had lots of marine haze and evaporation from the recent heavy rains, maybe in a couple of weeks it'll be better ........... I hope aloha Rob
See my images of the triple shadow transit at http://www.utahastronomy.com/ beginning at the bottom of page two and continuing on page three with the times noted. These were taken at Stansbury. Because of wind and intermittent clouds the images are not as good as I would have liked but on page 3 the image taken at 1:13 AM shows three shadows and two satellites. The dimmer looking "shadow" near the top but not on the edge is the image of Ganymede not the shadow. Also one of the white spots in the top main band is Io. You can see Io entering the band on the images on page 2. I think I could have gotten much better images if the seeing had been better. See my other images of Jupiter taken at City of the Rocks on page 2. These were taken in better conditions but still not ideal. Clear Skies Don Colton -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+djcolton=piol.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+djcolton=piol.com@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of UTAHDEB@aol.com Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 10:26 AM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Triple shadow transit Did anybody have good seeing last night? I saw all three shadows of Jupiter's moons but could only use 100-125X due to mediocre seeing. It seemed that seeing was better around 8:30 to 9:00. I saw very clearly the Great Red Spot around 8:45 then went in the house till 12:45. Also tried to split Epsilon Canis Majoris but only saw a spike from the secondary. I need better conditions for this double. Debbie _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
I already checked them out. Very cool, Don. Is it possible to stack the images into some kind of animation so we can watch the motion? Best wishes, Joe
Joe I'm sure it can be done somehow. I'll have to check it out. Clear Skies Don -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+djcolton=piol.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+djcolton=piol.com@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of Joe Bauman Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 9:35 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: RE: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Triple shadow transit I already checked them out. Very cool, Don. Is it possible to stack the images into some kind of animation so we can watch the motion? Best wishes, Joe _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
participants (8)
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daniel turner -
David L Bennett -
Don J. Colton -
Joe Bauman -
Michael Carnes -
Patrick Wiggins -
Rob Ratkowski -
UTAHDEB@aol.com