(Viewed 1,206 times)

[Centaur]

Tonight (2015 MAR 07-08) Jupiter’s Galilean satellite #2 Europa will transit 82% of the diameter of #1 Io. A little more than an hour later, Europa’s shadow will eclipse 69% of the diameter of Io.

I’ve created preview graphics and a timetable for these events that can be seen at www.CurtRenz.com/jupiter.html

Observers in the North American Eastern Time Zone should note that the official change to daylight saving time will occur between the two events. For time zones further west, both events will occur while still on standard time. 

Photos and descriptions of these events would be welcome additions to this thread.

[Paulie pchris00]

If I observe this, I might label any images in Eastern time.

[Paulie pchris00]

So far, although I didn't notice it visually- probably because I was looking for any angular separation of the two at the time- in my images I noticed that during the partial transit, Europa and Io are brighter than Ganymede. Very interesting.

Looking forward to the eclipse in less than an hour.

[Paulie pchris00]

I'll see how my images turned out later, but visually, Io got noticeably dimmer during mid-eclipse. I was very pleased with the observation, and pushing magification to 320x with my 6" Dob just after 1:23 AM CST, I could almost swear that the northern part of Io, being deep in shadow, was darker than the south, which was not eclipsed. Thanks again to Curt for the notification of these mutual Galilean events.

Not sure yet if I'm going to stay up for the partial occultation of Callisto by Ganymede later.

[Centaur]

Thanks for your fine reports, Paulie. Glad you got to see the events. With spring coming there may be fewer cold nights that prevent people from observing. Heck, Joe might even return to his forum. However, as we move toward summer this series of mutual Galilean satellite events will become reduced and fade away for another six years. Meanwhile, the next opportunity for Chicagoland observers will come early on March 10, when Ganymede totally occults Io while Ganymede's shadow transits Jupiter. The preview graphics for that are now on my website: www.CurtRenz.com/jupiter.html

[Paulie pchris00]

Mar 8, 2015 9:31:48 GMT -6 Centaur said:

Thanks for your fine reports, Paulie. Glad you got to see the events. With spring coming there may be fewer cold nights that prevent people from observing. Heck, Joe might even return to his forum. However, as we move toward summer this series of mutual Galilean satellite events will become reduced and fade away for another six years. Meanwhile, the next opportunity for Chicagoland observers will come early on March 10, when Ganymede totally occults Io while Ganymede's shadow transits Jupiter. The preview graphics for that are now on my website: www.CurtRenz.com/jupiter.html

This was the warmest (or rather at least not bone chilling cold) observation I've had since some of us- Joe included- gathered first outside Adler, and then Northerly Island in late December. Even summer nights get chilly in the wee hours, but it will be nice not to have to worry about frostbite for awhile.

These mutual Galilean events have been fun. I'm sure not many people can say they've observed lunar eclipses in another planetary system, and now I've seen two or three. I'll miss them once the plane of the Jovian system is no longer aligned with our line of sight from Earth.

I slept a little too much today. I started weeding out images, and editing the ones that might help fully depict this observation. Maybe I'll finish tomorrow and have them posted.

[Vinod Kumar]

Thanks for sharing it.