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A shadow

Littleguy80

By Littleguy80
in Observing - Planetary

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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Got up at 5am with grand plans of trying to see the supernova in NGC 3941 and M13 before some planetary observing. It didn't take long for me to realise I should have gotten up an hour earlier! I hadn't appreciated how much earlier it's getting brighter now. A quick look at M51 confirmed that I was best to jump straight to the planets. I started with Mars. The increase in size is noticeable from the last time I viewed it last month. At 200x magnification, I could see a lighter area towards one of the poles. It wasn't well defined so I'm not sure if I was picking up the ice cap or not.

Jupiter was the planet that I was most excited to see in my new dob. I went straight in at 150x. 3 moons all sat closely around the big gas giant with the fourth moon further away. The two large equatorial belts were showing really well. Immediately it was noticeable that the seeing was much better around Jupiter compared to Mars. Being higher in the sky was definitely helping. As Jupiter moved across the eyepiece, I spotted a small black spot towards the bottom of the planet. I leaned back and inspected the eyepiece itself, to check for dirt. Looked clean. Odd. Looked back at the planet and the black spot definitely seemed to be on the planet. Checked SkySafari and that showed the black spot too! That's when I finally realised I was seeing a shadow on the planet! This was a new experience for me! I spent the rest of the session tracking Jupiter and the shadow with a look of awe on my face! After a bit of research, I think the shadow was coming from Ganymede. Really good first planetary session for the dob and a great way to start the day.

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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5 minutes ago, kerrylewis said:

Great stuff Neil. I intended to get up and out for this shadow transit but in the end I couldn’t face rhe thought of the cold vs my warm bed :icon_biggrin:

Haha I don’t blame you, Kerry. I was happy to crawl back into a nice warm bed afterwards! 

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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11 minutes ago, cloudsweeper said:

Nice work Neil!  I too have seen the shadow transit of Ganymede, also the occultation of Io, and Callisto "skimming" over the top of Jupiter (or in your Dob, the bottom of Jupiter!).

Jupiter and his retinue never cease to delight.

Doug.

Thanks Doug. It was a great sight and totally unexpected. I often wonder when writing reports and using up and down or top and bottom, whether to use it as I see it in the eyepiece or the physical reality. I tend to opt for the eyepiece version as that’s how I remember it. 

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cloudsweeper

cloudsweeper

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1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

Thanks Doug. It was a great sight and totally unexpected. I often wonder when writing reports and using up and down or top and bottom, whether to use it as I see it in the eyepiece or the physical reality. I tend to opt for the eyepiece version as that’s how I remember it. 

Neil - north is generally towards Polaris.  When viewing the Moon and planets in my Cat and Frac, the top is also north, but in your Dob, that would be the bottom.  

(Incidentally - the GRS - it took me about 2.25 years to see it, and then it was a PGS, pale grey sausage.  But great to see anyway!)

Doug.

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Pondus

Pondus

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It is quite something to witness a solar eclipse on another planet  :smiley:.

When Jupiter is near ,and at, opposition, both the moon and shadow will adjacent  "on"  the planets surface from Our pov. 

A magnificent sight.

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Stu

Stu

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5 hours ago, Pondus said:

It is quite something to witness a solar eclipse on another planet  :smiley:.

When Jupiter is near ,and at, opposition, both the moon and shadow will adjacent  "on"  the planets surface from Our pov. 

A magnificent sight.

I've never thought of it from that perspective! Amazing to think of it like that. Given the sharp edges, I guess it goes in and out of full eclipse fairly quickly?

Yes, when viewed at opposition the moons and their shadows are very close together, at times overlapping particularly for Io, I seen that once or twice.

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Hayduke27

Hayduke27

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So Clear Outside was calling for totally clear skies this morning, and as I looked at Sky Safari last night I noticed that Io was supposed to be casting a shadow on Jupiter from approximately 4am to 5am!!  I got everything ready to go, set my alarm for 3:45, and went to bed.  I rose to my alarm, got dressed, and went outside to check...  Clouds.  Thick poofy clouds, the sky was about 95% covered.  Through a few cracks a could glimpse Jupiter here and there, but there were no solid clearings anywhere in the sky.  I went back to bed...

 

Dang, another time!  I'll get my shadow yet!!

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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15 minutes ago, Hayduke27 said:

So Clear Outside was calling for totally clear skies this morning, and as I looked at Sky Safari last night I noticed that Io was supposed to be casting a shadow on Jupiter from approximately 4am to 5am!!  I got everything ready to go, set my alarm for 3:45, and went to bed.  I rose to my alarm, got dressed, and went outside to check...  Clouds.  Thick poofy clouds, the sky was about 95% covered.  Through a few cracks a could glimpse Jupiter here and there, but there were no solid clearings anywhere in the sky.  I went back to bed...

 

Dang, another time!  I'll get my shadow yet!!

Booo! Well done for getting up even if it didn’t work out this time. Better luck next time, Alex! 

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