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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Imaging Jupiter....all alley-like

25 August 2011

The recent cold front pushed all of the atmospheric gunk away - displaying a crystal clear sky. With Polaris clearly standing out without any difficulty, I felt I should do something astronomical.

I set up the C11 outside of the garage and caught me some Jupiter high in the east. It's the only position I can really catch Jupiter, as my trees and garage building block any other angles. So, dealing with my limited vista, I observe some pretty decent Jovian features, including the GRS and a splotch on the NEB. I also observe a whimsical formation of satellites...

Stellarium says this...

A bit off, as Ganymede and Io are closer together...and in this next shot, the satellites are more than just pin points...

I don't know what that smudge is....perhaps the Mother ship...

The GRS slipped away pretty quickly as I observed it overnight...

For the above pics, I used the 2" 26mm eyepiece, but for the next series, I used a 1.25" 17mm...

The early morning crescent Moon peeked out from the neighbor's treeline at around 3:30 am....

My best next door neighbor Chicago Astronomer Fan Jack, (looking away), his girlfriend Laurie and roomie Aaron, stopped by for some peeks at Jupiter, The Moon and the Orion Nebula...

Jack really digs astronomy and discussing the subject with me in the early mornings he sees me out, spreading the word near & far about how cool to have an Astronomer next door. The crew really dug the targets presented and I tried to get the Pleiades, but alley lights were pouring into the 60mm finder scope and literally washed every out.

Horrible...

But, it was my pleasure to share what I could with my friends...No extra charge Jack...

012th District Police also stopped by for awhile, talking astronomy, sharing views and chatting about my years in the District. I also spent some time re-collimating the C11...as I bumped one of the Bob Knob's on the secondary - knocking off the sharpness. After some time, I got it back nicely, but want to address this again when I have some time for a close to perfect alignment.

Alway fun to see who stops by the observation site... ;D

[Paulie pchris00]

I'm amazed at your Jupiter shots. And I know it must look even better in the eyepiece. No long exposure or stacking? Those might be worth submitting to a magazine or something.

I too have been noticing those dark patches in the NEB. Not sure what they are, or how long they've been there. And the GRS seems to be showing up rather nicely lately. Sunday/Monday I thought it was the orangest I've ever seen it.

[patrickm]

Awesome shots. Cool you have good neighbors, too. I LOVE the Jovian lunar alignment! One of the best I've seen.

Question: How much magnification is needed for Jovian lunar features? Are any terrestrial scopes capable?

[Paulie pchris00]

Aug 25, 2011 8:19:50 GMT -6 patrickm said:

Question: How much magnification is needed for Jovian lunar features? Are any terrestrial scopes capable?

As far as I'm aware, the only close-up shot of the Galilean Moons have come from passing spacecraft. Maybe the really big telescopes like Keck or VLT can start to see some vague detail, but their time is far too valuable to use on something so close.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Thanks kids.

No stacking and quick exposures at the eyepiece...but I really should be using "Registax" or some other astro-processing program.

Visually, I could make out tiny disks at high power, but this kid from the Philippines also uses a C11 to grab great detailed shots of Jupiter and managed to capture detail on Ganymede...

jupiter.cstoneind.com/

When I showed my neighbors Jupiter at near zenith, the planet was as better as I have ever observed it, but we had to drag the loaded scope almost to the middle of the alley... .

[patrickm]

Photo: WOW!

Friends: Better.

[barbarai]

OMG!! I LOVE IO!! thanks, Joe, for the magnificent pics...they are just unbelievable.

[Paulie pchris00]

Maybe I'm threadjacking here, but I have some comments about my Jovian observations lately, and these images illustrate my points well. I've been seeing multiple dark spots in the NEB, one of which Joe captured here quite well. Before we specualte what it could be, let's rule out what it is not.

Could it be a shadow of a Moon? No, for two reasons. First, shadow transits of a Galilean Moon show a very distinct circle, and are pitch black. The spot imaged above seems to elongated east-west, and not quite as dark as a moon shadow. Second, none of the moons are in a position to be casting a shadow onto Jupiter. Keep in mind sunlight is falling right to left in these images. Io is apparently transiting in front of Jupiter, and it's shadow has already preceded it across Jupiter's face. Europa looks as if it will soon cast a shadow on Jupiter, but it would be in the SEB. Ganymede could not possibly throw a shadow onto Jupiter, since it is on the far side of Jupiter from us.

Now, let's speculate. Could it be an impact? Maybe, although I haven't seen any reports of such. Jupiter has only recently come into good viewing position, so maybe an impact could have occurred while it was still low in the morning sky, and very difficult to observe. I have my doubts about this hypothesis though. The 2009 impact discovered by Anthony Wesley in Australia was not visible in my 6" Dob, despite looking for it repeatedly, at a time when Jupiter was in favorable viewing position. These are large enough to be clearly seen in my Dob, which doesn't automatically rule out an impact, but suggests it would be larger than the one two years ago. Also, since there are at least two splotches, it would be more like a Shoemaker-Levy 9 type of impact.

Is there some sort of storm going on in the NEB? It seems the most likely, but there are still problems with this hypothesis. Neptune has had a black spot in it's atmosphere, but that storm was more like the GRS than these.

Really, I don't know what to make of these spots. I haven't seen any mention of them elsewhere, but I don't patrol other forums. Has anybody seen these discussed on other websites, and if so, please provide a link. Thanks.

[-=CROMAN=-]

I'm going with the Monoliths.

[patrickm]

They are freaking me out too, and I want answers!!!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

It the 2012 movie I'm telling you.

The 2 NEB splotches seem to be fading, as this pic shows...

jupiter.cstoneind.com/

This kid has moved up to a Orange C14, but I think his C11 pics are better.

There was a GRS jr that has seemed to vanish, but I think the two NEB splotches are not impacts. Early pics from others do not show the radiating shock rings and the dark material shot up from below. I think they are similar to the GRS and could grow.

But I say monoliths as well.

[patrickm]

What would the REALLY BIG monolith be standing on??

[Paulie pchris00]

A turtle? (It's turtles all the way down to the core. Juno should verify this in a few years.) ;D

[patrickm]

Forgot about the turtles! Stupid me.

[patrickm]

Aug 31, 2011 11:29:29 GMT -6 Paulie pchris00 said:

A turtle? (It's turtles all the way down to the core. Juno should verify this in a few years.) ;D

Something like this?

Attachments:

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Methane and ammonia turtles.