Jupiter looking v.interesting (31-03-16)

[John]

The seeing seems steadier tonight than it was last night and Jupiter is looking great. Although the GRS is currently out of view and there are no moon transit events currently in progress, there are some strong festoons in the equatorial zone and the north equatorial belt is looking rather interesting with some complex dark contrast features currently approaching the central meridian.

I wonder if that meteorite / comet impact earlier this week has had any effect on the features ?.

[Pete Presland]

I was thinking the same as the GRS disappeared around the limb earlier this evening.  I guess we would probably heard/seen something by now though.  Good stable conditions tonight in Bedfordshire for a change.

[John]

The "feature" in the NEB is more or less on the central meridian now. It's dark brown elongated patch that seems to have a paler rim around it rather like the GRS. It's nearly the same size as the GRS and lies on the S side of the NEB and rather embedded in it.

 

[Special K]

Lovely view tonight;  nice and calm with moments of very good seeing I thought. I didn't see that feature in the NEB, John, but had I looked out for it, I might have done. What was catching my attention was the appearance of the SEB looking a dark marble.  Without clues from apps I was trying to determine if the GRS was in transit but correctly ruled it out!  However there are darker features swirling around there which give rise to doubt.   I began about 11pm and just missed Io's occultation.   Had to smile a little when I noticed Jupiter was pretty much due south at that time so was prime time for viewing

For the past few weeks this has been incredibly interesting each time I've looked. 

[John]

Nice one Kevin !

I'll see if anyone has imaged Jupiter this evening and caught my "feature".

 

[iPeace]

Had this one all planned and the cloud finally moved off to the East. Was out in time to catch Io's ghostly reappearance from behind the planet, but Jove itself would not give up much detail, bright but all blur and smudge despite the moons telling me I was correctly in focus. Couldn't make out the Spot even though Stellarium had told me it would become visible around this time. Exhaust plumes or whatever, it just wasn't going to happen tonight. I did enjoy Io's reappearance a lot; something extraordinary about watching it "come out of nowhere", right before your eyes.

Glad you all got some better views.

P.S. you know you're still a newbie when you realize you couldn't recognize Leo because it's so much bigger than you expected

[Dave In Vermont]

I'd imagine the impact must have left it's mark. After Shoemaker-Levy peppered Jupiter, the marks were visible for quite a long time. I'm making a point of looking at every image of Jupiter posted on the web for an example of a 'scar.' And seen a few likely candidates in the Southern equatorial-belt.

We shall see,

Dave

[Stu]

8 hours ago, John said:

The seeing seems steadier tonight than it was last night and Jupiter is looking great. Although the GRS is currently out of view and there are no moon transit events currently in progress, there are some strong festoons in the equatorial zone and the north equatorial belt is looking rather interesting with some complex dark contrast features currently approaching the central meridian.

I wonder if that meteorite / comet impact earlier this week has had any effect on the features ?.

John, I was observing last night with Paul (dick_dangerous) with the 8" but the seeing was pretty poor. I saw the feature you are referring to, and couldn't quite make out what it was but it basically tied up with your description and was in the right location.

Paul's 150P was giving better, crisper planetary images last night presumably (hopefully!) because of the poor seeing, very nice.

It will be interesting to see whether it is an impact scar. Most things I had read about it seemed to be of the opinion that it was too small to cause anything visible but it would be great if it did. Shoemaker-Levy was before my Astro days!

[iPeace]

9 hours ago, John said:

The "feature" in the NEB is more or less on the central meridian now. It's dark brown elongated patch that seems to have a paler rim around it rather like the GRS. It's nearly the same size as the GRS and lies on the S side of the NEB and rather embedded in it.

 

Hang on...I may have actually seen this...! As I said earlier, the planet was all blurry for me this session, and I couldn't make out the Spot...BUT...earlier, I had caught myself thinking: "If I didn't know better, I'd suspect there was a moon in transit - that smudge there reminds me of a shadow". But it was more "brownish" and not a nice "bullet hole" as I've come to expect...I just thought I was "seeing things" at the time.

Could it be?

[kerrylewis]

I was observing Jupiter last evening with the 6" Vixen and also noted some of the features that have been mentioned. After the departure of the GRS there was firstly a smaller darker feature in the NEB that did at times look like a smudgy shadow. But then there followed a larger feature which my notes have as slightly smaller and rounder than the GRS and monochrome. I noted it as almost the full width of the NEB and, interestingly, having a central lighter spot giving it a vaguely 'bull's eye' appearance. A very interesting feature. Seeing was not good but there were occasional periods of clarity.

More moon and shadow transits this evening weather permitting. 

[John]

Sounds like a number of us saw this feature. I was thinking brown version of the GRS about it as well. Lets see if the imagers have caught it

[laudropb]

Viewed Jupiter for a few hours last night. Seeing was pretty poor. Could not go above 100 x, but I did note a small black mark on the NEB but it was coming and going with the seeing and no details were possible.

[niallk]

On 31/03/2016 at 22:26, John said:

The "feature" in the NEB is more or less on the central meridian now. It's dark brown elongated patch that seems to have a paler rim around it rather like the GRS. It's nearly the same size as the GRS and lies on the S side of the NEB and rather embedded in it.

 

I'm late to the thread, but was out that night and saw it too!

Jupiter has just been great the last few times I've gotten out: can't get enough of it