Jupiter July 16 and 20

[darditti]

Conditions were pretty good on the 16th and allowed a view of Jupiter showing pink Oval BA near the central meridian and spots around it.

However, there was more excitement on the 20th. Conditions were fair but not excellent. Initially I was interested in the GRS and the Io transit and shadow transit, but my attention was also caught by the unusual dark spot in the south polar region. I observed visually from about 02:10 to 02:30 with binoviewers and could clearly see the dark spot, as well as the orange Io against the equatorial zone.

In the afternoon I got news of Anthony Wesley's discovery from Australia of a suspected comet impact site in the south polar region of Jupiter. The dark spot that I had imaged and observed was this comet impact "scar", now generally agreed to be such, and now being studied by professional observatories. Several other European observers also got images of it that night, but these are amongst the first of this remarkable feature. It will be interesting to see how long it persists. It is clearly being sheared by the rapid currents in Jupiter's atmosphere, as it looks more spread out in these images than it does in Anthony's discovery image.

David

[Dave]

Great captures there David.

[moocher]

Fantastic series of captures David. The impact site is very clear!!!! I`ve just ordered my IR742 filter so hopefully that will improve things for me...

Alan:)

[barkis]

Superb set of Images David. Clearly something big happened on Jupiter, and I can't understand why no official statements have been forthcoming. I suppose clarification will be difficult, and as you said, Jupiters dynamics will soon hide any evidence.

Anyway, as interesting as that is, let it not detract from these fine transit pictures, and the details shown too.

Ron.

[Taff]

They are cracking captures with you.Great colours of the bands nice one.Mark

[Starstrike]

Superior capture David, must feel good to take pictures of virtually a real time astro event. Paul

[bish]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.

[ThePhoenix]

Images show the impact really well. Aussie sites are calling the impact the 'Bird Strike' since Anthony goes by the name Bird on line.

[darditti]

The "Bird Strike" is better than Comet Wesley, since we can't be sure it was a comet. Anthony is a very dedicated and methodical imager, one of the best, so he well deserves this discovery and getting all this attention. Someone who was not on the ball might not have noticed something very unusual was going on and alerted the community so quickly. I am very pleased for him, and it shows the value of the amateur effort in planetary imaging.

David