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Did anyone on SGL witness the 1994 Shoemaker Levy impact


Paz

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I'm reading a lot about Jupiter in advance of it coming to its best position for observing this year and in The Planet Observers Handbook there is a really interesting section about the 1994 Shoemaker Levy impact on Jupiter including sketches by amateurs including some from the UK.

Its a long shot but I was just wondering if anyone in sgl saw the event directly, it would be exciting to hear first hand accounts.

 

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I did using my 1970's/80's 80mm F15 refractor.It gave sharp planetary images.I can remember seeing some dark spots on Jupiters disc.The disc was small in the eyepiece ,but the quality of the planetary disc did show great detail.Much later I remember observing Jupiter with a Meade 8 inch SCT.This gave a bigger disc due to higher magnification.But Jupiter had recovered by then.

But I will never forget seeing those dark spots which were the impact sites.

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Yes saw them and did a series of sketches ,which got lost in a house move some years ago along with all my other astro sketches :angryfire:

We were shocked at the size of the impacts as the thinking was they would be quite small.

With a 8" f13 newt on a home made mount (still have the mirror)

Also my first real experience of the internet when we got the NASA images next day rather than having to wait for over 6 months for the slides to be released over here.

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I saw some dark spots as a result of the comet fragments at the local observatory on a huge TV monitor connected to what I believe was an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain. The image was small but the excitement was palpable! It was the first time I saw a telescope attached to a TV (furthermore, it was the old tube type, remember those)! People were wondering the effect of something similar on Earth (!!!)

MAS%20-%20Great%20Comet%20Crash%20QampA%

 

Reggie

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Wow this some proper history - a once in a lifetime (or many lifetimes) event.

Its also interesting to hear of the kinds of scopes being used back then, and there would have presumably been no computers to help with planning sessions or finding things.

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I seem to recall that I had a 4" Vixen refractor back then and saw the scars from the impacts several times. It had GOTO - a Vixen Skysensor. That was introduced in 1984 !

(steam powered of course !)

 

 

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Yes I remember viewing this one.

I had the same 8.5 inch reflector I use now to view it, and remember how amazing it was to be able to glimpse these tiny dark markings. 

I tried taking some photographs using my slr camera, but with no tracking at the time and using film, they didn't come out. With todays cameras and reliable tracking we could capture some amazing images if something like that occurred again. Just goes to show how tech has moved on, even if the telescope is the same.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Paz said:

Wow this some proper history - a once in a lifetime (or many lifetimes) event.

Its also interesting to hear of the kinds of scopes being used back then, and there would have presumably been no computers to help with planning sessions or finding things.

Blimey! How long ago do you think 1994 was? Of course we had computers. And planetarium software.

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3 hours ago, Paz said:

Wow this some proper history - a once in a lifetime (or many lifetimes) event.

Its also interesting to hear of the kinds of scopes being used back then, and there would have presumably been no computers to help with planning sessions or finding things.

There were computers but they were much more limited.

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I remember looking at Jupiter through a 10" Dob on the night of the impact. We didn't know if we'd see plumes from the impact, or if the planet would blow up or anything! (well, y'know). I think it was about 1am or something. Anyways, I saw nothing, but when the planet turned there were dark spots that could bee seen for weeks or months afterwards.

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I may have been unfair in my assessment of the amount of progress we had made in computing by then. I suppose I was playing computer games in the mid-eighties and this was a decade later!

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