GRS timings tonight?

[JamesF]

Is there information available anywhere handy for when the GRS is visible on Jupiter? I realise it's variable, but it is presumably at least moderately predictable. I'm not asking to the second here

Or, failing that, does anyone know what time it should be visible tonight? I'd guess quite early evening based on it being on the western limb around mindnight last night?

James

[Dave]

See the Sky & Telescope web page here:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/3304091.html?page=1&c=y

Dave

[JamesF]

Thanks for that, Dave. In fact there's a link on that page to here:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/skytel/beyondthepage/Great-Red-Spot-Transit-Table-2012-2013-159437655.html

which just gives loads of timings, including 18:05 for tonight.

James

[fredster]

Is that 6:05 tonight or was it 6.05 this morning? Just ran it and it says 06:05, 16:01 for the 29th and 01:57 for 30th. Which is better anyway as that means Jupiter will be at its highest for 1am tomorrow morning. I could have read the applet all wrong though.

[fredster]

Btw there is a Europa shadow transit starting at 19:30 tonight, ends at 22:30. Moon transit are simply awesome.

The GRS is already transiting as i type. But it will indeed be back from 00:30 onwards tomorrow morning. So that's a whole night of Jupiter viewing!

[JamesF]

Is that 6:05 tonight or was it 6.05 this morning? Just ran it and it says 06:05, 16:01 for the 29th and 01:57 for 30th. Which is better anyway as that means Jupiter will be at its highest for 1am tomorrow morning. I could have read the applet all wrong though.

The web page I linked to gives timings for today as "29: 8:09, 18:05;" in UTC so something is confused somewhere.

James

[fredster]

I tried a different applet and it gave the same timings for me. I'd better check my PC setup, make sure its not on Pacific time or something

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

There is a free java program called "jupiter2" that i use for things like this, gives you a visual of how jupiter is now or at any specified time, and gives you a list of interesting things happening in the next week.

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

Really really cool, and even allows you to input the true location of the grs for accuracy, since it shifts around a bit.

[JamesF]

Btw there is a Europa shadow transit starting at 19:30 tonight, ends at 22:30. Moon transit are simply awesome.

The GRS is already transiting as i type. But it will indeed be back from 00:30 onwards tomorrow morning. So that's a whole night of Jupiter viewing!

Looks like once Europa completes its transit all four Galilean moons will end up on the western side of the planet which is rather neat, too.

James

[Matt Scunthorpe]

I watched the first half of the transit last night. I thought i saw the GRS, this was around 21:00 so could of been possible with timings above and the link provided, will bookmark the link though for future reference.

[AndyHa]

There is a useful table in the S@N winter marathon guide to help people observe the GRS,

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/skyatnight/moore-winter-marathon-guide-26-50.pdf