Heads up: Jupiter moon and shadow transits

[John]

Well I managed to see Europa's egress from the disk of Jupiter leaving Io and it's shadow with around 33% of the disk still to traverse. Great event !!

Rounded the session off with some super views of M13 and M92 in Hercules and the Ring Nebula rising in Lyra.

A very satisfying session

[Stu]

1 minute ago, John said:

Well I managed to see Europa's egress from the disk of Jupiter leaving Io and it's shadow with around 33% of the disk still to traverse. Great event !!

Rounded the session off with some super views of M13 and M92 in Hercules and the Ring Nebula rising in Lyra.

A very satifying session

All packed away now too. Everything pretty frosted up but avoided any dew issues. Lovely viewing as John says. I watched until Europa appeared as a pimple on the limb, so saw the complete transit. Quite amazing detail at times, the forecast was right, despite my cynicism ??

[Stu]

It was a bit of a surprise to see Lyra appearing as I packed up! There is a tall hedge in that direction so it would have meant moving the scopes to see it, but it's sign of the seasons changing I guess

[Special K]

Wow, Kerry I sincerely hope you caught that!!!!!  All packed in now and that was a famous session. Seeing was bloomin good!  In fact that was a top Jupiter session for me.

I started with the ED80 while the bigger scope cooled. Europa gave a lovely dot of black ink on the north edge of the NEB.  But with the big glass this REALLY came out!  128x no filter in the 152mm looking superb with both shadows clearly visible. Loads of detail on the rest of the disc the way to the pole. But when I whacked in the Barlow and a yellow #12 filter I was stunned: there was Europa's white disc adjacent to its shadow!  That's a first for me to track the moon along with its shadow. I also noticed Io's shadow started to wane and at 1:45 wondered what was going on.  I missed this running commentary at the time so very exciting to read it now   Watched Europa clear the limb to finish off.  Moved on to Markarian's Chain, M53 and M13, but watching this transit was a show stopper!

Those were some clear skies!

[iPeace]

For a while there, it wasn't looking good, all clouded over just as Europa was approaching its transit, so missed that...sat outside in several layers of thermal garments, gloves, hat, fur-lined boots, cloaked in a sleeping bag - you get the idea - thinking of Sir Patrick and how often he unjustly suffered lack of clear skies...when finally the break came. I got to see Io start its transit, seemingly nudging up to the planet before becoming a permanent fixture. Got some great views of both shadows like eyes on a face, and finally Europa and then Io emerging from in front of the disk. Fantastic stuff, and to be in on this so soon in my career...

Many thanks to Kerry

[iPeace]

Incidentally, before the show started, got my best view of M42 to date, Trapezium jumping straight out at me, just great. A really great night.

[Joe12345]

I went to bed before it started, but I did have a look before I packed away; I saw 2 moons very close to Jupiter but no obvious shadows. I guess I'll have to wait for the next one

[Stub Mandrel]

I have nearly filled my laptops HDD with video, well i had room for another 8 1.5 minute captures but the battery went flat!

Cold and tired so only saw both moons get onto the disk.

I had forgotten about this being last night, but when my DSO session went completely fubar I decided to try a cheap £1 boot-sale webcam my wife found instead of my M$ HD Lifecam.

Not only did I get my clearest on-screen pictures to date, but I was also able to capture at a full 30fps.

Seeing was very strange, but easier to track as when recording the image was only updating slowly - a lot of the time Jupiter was just boiling, barely showing bands, but about a quarter of frames the  shadow of Europa was a solid, hard-edged black dot and Io a bright spot on the limb, for example.

Very hard to follow the moons as they moved away from the limb, but shadows were easier towards the centre of the disk.

Spent a lot of time just staring up at Jupiter naked eye and wondering (in the 'wonderful' sense).

[kerrylewis]

Great reports everyone and I did see it!

Ironicaly, I didn't feel too good yesterday and this built up to a headache. So I set up the refractor and went to bed early to try to shift it. Got up just after midnight in time to see the second moon approaching, and finished as the first one left the disc (with a couple of breaks). Great show but not much to add to your wonderful accounts 

[chiltonstar]

I caught the same as John with Europa; the moon and shadow were nearly coincident so instead of being a disk, the combination looked like a whitish disk with a black crescent on it (x225 with Mak 180). I missed the second transit as a cottage was in the way.

Chris

[Stu]

31 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

I caught the same as John with Europa; the moon and shadow were nearly coincident so instead of being a disk, the combination looked like a whitish disk with a black crescent on it (x225 with Mak 180). I missed the second transit as a cottage was in the way.

Chris

Yep, that looked amazing didn't it Chris. Still can't quite believe how much detail was visible when the seeing stabilized.

[Davesellars]

I caught the transit without knowing about it.  I was actually out bagging numerous Herschel 400 galaxies taking advantage of no Moon...     However, Jupiter I went back to about 5 times during the night from 9pm to 2am because the seeing was so awesome it was absolutely rock steady view of the planet with my C8 at 160x (the largest EP I'd taken out was 8mm but using the focal reducer).  The detail of the cloud bands and shape of the main 2 bands and colour was quite frankly astonishing akin to what I'd seen in photos with the lower hemisphere bands also distinctly showing - Wish I'd taken out my 5mm EP with me!     When Io and Europa were transiting it was very clear to see both.  Possibly the best view of Jupiter I've have yet!