Europa Occults Ganymede

[mjpfc]

     An absolute stunner last night while waiting for a Comet...........

    Had the Newt turned on Jupiter from around 22:17 to 23: 30.    I had not remembered this event from reading A/N...

(being 55, my wife has to keep coming out to tell me what I'm doing in the garden).

   It was the greatest piece of luck that had me turn the scope on Jupiter early, instead of waiting until it got a little higher

above the roof-tops.

   I immediately noticed that Ganymede and Europa where very close together, and some minutes at the scope confirmed

that the gap was shrinking and not getting bigger......  IO was at the other side of the Planet as was Callisto (by a good way).

   Europa being much nearer at the time than Ganymede looked at least half as big again as the monster moon, and slowly

slid across to pretty much completely Occult it.  It hid Ganymede for 20 odd minutes, during which time I ran to check

with the A/N for December.  It stated that the Occultation would be over (Gan starting to come out from behind) by 23:16, and

I saw them both as seperate little discs at 23:26.

A breathtaking little show of celestial dynamics......

Completely chuffed.  Wrap that up and call it a Christmas pressie.

Mick

[mister_wavey]

dunno if I love your enthusiasm or your sketch the most. fab!

[Moonshane]

Doh. I was observing a bit later than you and missed this

[cotterless45]

"Jupiter's Moons " is a great free app. I caught one of these moon dances , last time out. It's great to see the moons so close then separate so quickly, Nick.

[Astro Imp]

Terrific report accompanied by a great sketch, well done.

[chiltonstar]

Fantastic sketch! I caught it too by accident. Odd effect like a pair of close doubles, closing up and then opening, but w/out diffraction rings like stars.

Chris

[Special K]

Nice to be in the right place at the right time! Great report on that pressie. There was a surprise on Christmas Eve when Ganymede seemingly disappeared, but was eclipsed by the giant planet. It all happened so quickly too and I didn't have a clue it was coming. Fun stuff!

Jupiter's Moons also has a night mode to turn the screen red which is dead handy in the field.

[Steve Ward]

Just been fast-forwarding through Stellarium and it's going to be a very regular event for the foreseeable , guess the 2014/5 alignment is just so ... 

[Astro Imp]

Just been fast-forwarding through Stellarium and it's going to be a very regular event for the foreseeable , guess the 2014/5 alignment is just so ... 

Quite right, the moons are orbiting in the plain of our line of sight, makes for some great viewing.