What are these dark spots on Jupiters surface?

[Astronut1982]

Hey everyone,

I took this pic on Thurs evening [01/12/11] at around 11pm & when I got home & stacked I noticed the 2 dark spots just below the SEB on the left & just right of the centre. I was unsure though what these were so I wanted to ask you:-

Are they just 2 dark spots or is it a moon & its shadow on the surface with the one on the left being the moon & it's shadow on the right?

Does anyone know of any sites where I can look this up in future?

Jeff

[Stu]

Hi Jeff

They are called barges and are dark storms which appear along the edge of the NEB. Your scope inverts things so it looks like the southern belt.

I checked and there weren't any shadow transits at the time and the GRS wasn't visible either.

I use an Android app on my phone called galilean which predicts both quite accurately but you can download a program called Stellarium onto your pc which is free and will tell you that, plus much more

Cheers

Stu

[Astronut1982]

Thanks Stu,

I didn't think it was but wasn't 100% sure. I knew there was a transit last night just didn't know about the night before. Also, it didn't even cross my mind about the image being inverted!

I have Stellarium but I didn't know it showed the positions of the moons, how do you do that?

Jeff

[Telrad]

Yes, they are barges which to my understanding are formed by an upwelling of darker material from the lower atmosphere, rather than by cyclonic circulation as in the GRS. I could be wrong? Nice image though Jeff. Well done!

[Stu]

Not too sure because I don't use it much. Have you tried zooming right in on Jupiter? I think the moons sure then but someone else can advise better.

There are a number of other web based programs which show these things too. I will try to dig out a link, but again, someone else will post something soon I'm sure

Stu

[Stu]

http://astrosurf.com/rondi/jupiter/

Try this, called Jupiter 2.0

Forgot to say, great picture :-)

Stu

[Astronut1982]

Thanks guys.

I've downloaded Jupiter 2.0 & it looks like quite a useful program.

I've taken a few pics of Jupiter now but none with a transit. I'd really like to try & get one so this program hopefully will help me to do so.

Jeff

[Spackbackle]

With Stellarium, you would just set the date, time and location to where you want and then zoom in on jupiter. Dont think you can search for transit times though (unless there is a plugin for it??)