Re: Ganymede transit Thursday night

Hattonjasonp@No-Spam
Date: Fri Feb 28 2003 - 21:14:31 MST

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    Yes, I also spent most of the evening observing this event with my G9.25.
    Even better I got a sequence of images over a three hour period, including
    the occultation of Callisto behind Jupiters limb, using a webcam (Philips
    Toucam). As soon as I have the image sequence processed (which is rather time
    consuming I'm afraid) I'll upload them to my webpage for everyone to see.

    Best wishes & clear skies,

    Jason P Hatton

    >> Michelle wrote: Seeing is good.
    >>Transparency excellent. The planets tonight were stunning.
    >
    >Did you happen to catch the Ganymede transit tonight on Jupiter? I
    >had the 7 inch Starmaster Oak Classic in the backyard near Stanford,
    >and we had some of the steadiest seeing I have seen locally in
    >weeks. Ganymede was obviously dark against the surface of Jupiter
    >when near the middle of the planet around 9:15 pm , but then got
    >hard to see as it approached the limb, and finally turned to a
    >whitish dot superimposed on the limb of Jupiter just before emerging
    >from the planet around 10:30 pm. A great example of limb darkening
    >on Jupiter! (Io and Europa are normally harder to see when in the
    >middle of the planet than at the edge. Ganymede has a darker
    >surface and showed the opposite pattern). The GRS was perfectly
    >placed near the meridian during much of the transit, behind
    >Ganymede itself, but preceding Ganymede's shadow. The shadow was
    >bigger, darker, and sharper edged than the moon itself, and the two
    >dark spots made a great set of brackets for the pinkish GRS. Just
    >after Ganymede emerged from Jupiter, it made a beautiful tight
    >double star with Callisto. Minutes later, Callisto went into
    >eclipse behind Jjupiter, as Ganymede was moving further away.



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