Jupiter at opposition - Europa Transit

[mike.brightmore]

Jupiter reached opposition today. A shadow transit of its moon Europa is due to begin about 3.00 a.m. (22 Sept.) I imagine that due to opposition the Sun, Earth and Jupiter are all in a line so Europa's transit will be co-terminus with the transit of its shadow i.e. more or less superimposed on each other. Does this sound right?

[Talitha]

Yes that's right Mike, hopefully there'll be pics somewhere.

I watched the shadow last night (-6 UT) but a light layer of milky cirrus clouds prevented me from seeing Europa. The moon Io will be transiting tonight, but we've got thunderstorms moving in at sunset.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Its AMAZING how many emails i have gotten today from non-astronomer friends telling me that Jupiter is at opposition and is the closest to Earth then it has been in decades.

These are people who for the most part have never looked through a scope or even bins.

Just goes to show just how many people out there who are not self proclaimed observers, watch the news and read up on celestial events.

Its nice to know that people who i know with such names as HarleyHog etc actually do pay attention to celestial events and have a somewhat pretty good understanding of astronomy. I always post a "heads up" for these friends around the time of meteor showers and eclipses.

[Stefan P]

I do the same thing Paul ... if there is something that is easy to spot and worth taking a look at in the sky then I'll mail everyone at work to tell them. I think they consider me a slight oddball that sits in the corner office, but guaranteed that anyone that goes out and watches a lunar eclipse, or catches a few meteors, comes in the next day and tells me rather excitedly about what they saw!

Apart from the fact that it's almost always cloudy when I send those emails, it's very exciting to encourage other people to look up at night and see what's out there

[griff44]

Its a pitty Jupiter is not high up insead of low down in the sky - views would be better i'm guessing?