Category: Planetary

Jupiter and Moons

Jupiter and Moons November 16, 2010

Sketch and Details by Carlos E. Hernandez

I made an observation of Jupiter on November 16, 2010 (01:00 U.T.). The Great Red Spot (GRS, center at 160.0* L2) was visible on the central meridian (CM). A good amount of detail was noted over the planet as described below. Io and Europa were visible close to each other over the preceding limb of the planet.

Date (U.T.): November 16, 2010
Time (U.T.): 01:00
L1 246.5*, L2 160.0*, L3 20.6*
De 2.1*, Ds 2.3*, -2.7m, 44.6” (Equatorial)
Instrument: 9-inch (23-cm) F/13.5 Maksutov-Cassegrain
Magnification: 310x
Filters: None (IL)
Seeing (1-10): 6-7, Antoniadi (I-V): II-III
Transparency (1-6): 4

Notes:
South Polar Region (SPR) to South Temperate Belt (STB): This portion of Jupiter’s southern hemisphere appears dark to shaded (3-6/10) containing irregular dusky (4/10) bands and shaded (6/10) zones with mottling noted throughout. The region between the South South Temperate Belt to the South Temperate Belt (STB) appears dark to dusky (3-4/10). Bright (7/10) ovals are noted over the South South Temperate Belt (SSTB) region. Oval BA appears dusky (4/10) and reddish-orange with a dark (3/10) collar preceding the CM. The following half of the South Temperate Zone (STZ) appears bright (7/10). The following half of the STB appears thin and dark to dusky (3-4/10) and containing dark (3/10) condensations.
South Tropical Zone (STrZ): Appears bright (7/10) and containing the Great Red Spot (GRS) on the CM. A dusky (4/10) streak appears to connect over the following end of the GRS which extends from the SEB region.
Great Red Spot (GRS): Appears shaded (6/10) over it’s center to dusky (4/10) over it’s periphery. Irregular dull (5/10) streaks were noted within. The preceding end of the GRS was measured at 150.9* L2 (11.6* L3), center (160.0* L2, or 20.6* L3), and following end at 166.0* L2 (26.7* L3).
South Equatorial Belt (SEB): Appears a dull to dusky (4-5/10) light pastel reddish-orange color with dusky (4/10) bluish-gray streaks throughout. The reformation of the Red Spot Hollow (RSH) appears to be taking place at this time.
Equatorial Zone (EZ): Appears bright (7/10) with dull (5/10) bluish-gray streaks noted within it. Dusky (4/10) bluish-gray festoon projections extending from the southern border of the NEB are visible within it.
North Equatorial Belt (NEB): Appears dark to dusky (3-4/10) with dark (3/10) condensations and bright (7/10) streaks noted within it. A very bright (8/10) rift is noted over the southern portion of the NEB towards the following limb which originates in the EZ. A dark (3/10) bluish-gray (almost lavender) elongated condensation is noted south of the bright rift. Dark (3/10) bluish-gray festoons (bases) are noted along the southern border of the NEB. Very bright (8/10) ovals are noted along the southern border of the NEB as well.
North Tropical Zone (NTrZ): Appears bright (7/10) and no other detail is visible within it.
North Temperate Belt (NTB): Appears thin and dusky (4/10) with a dark (3/10) condensation noted within it following the CM (172.1* L2 or 32.7* L3).
North Temperate Zone (NTZ): Appears bright (7/10) and no other detail is visible within it.
North North Temperate Belt (NNTB): Appears dark to dusky (3-4/10) and irregular.
North North Temperate Zone (NNTZ): Appears shaded (6/10) and no other detail is visible within it.
North North North Temperate Belt (NNNTB): Appears thin and dusky (4/10).
North North North Temperate Zone (NNNTZ): Appears thin and shaded (6/10).
North Polar Region (NPR): Appears dark to dusky (3-4/10) and mottled.

Europa (II, 5.80m) and Io (I, 5.52m), preceding to following, are visible close together (approximately two arc-seconds apart) preceding the planet at the level of the NEB.

Surprisingly Beautiful Giant

Object Name: Jupiter + Io + Ganymede + Callisto
Object Type: Planet
Location: Itajobi – SP – Brazil
Date: 04/10/10 – 00h30min U.T.
Media: 2B graphite mec. pencil on white paper, inverted and bright edited.

Instrument: dobsonian newtonian reflecting telescope
Diameter: 180mm (7.1″)
Focal Lenght: 1080mm (f/D = 6)
Eyepieces:
SP 32mm (34x)
Ortho 12.5mm (86x)
Plossl 10mm (108x)
SP 6mm (180x)

A three elements 2.5x Barlow was combined with all eyepieces, but yielded bad results.
Best images through Ortho 12.5mm and Plossl 10mm.
Planet position:
Az/Alt: 58º/58º
Planet mag.: -2,8

Comments:
It was a cloudy sunday night, it had rained for some days in a row, and it was my last hours on countryside. While I waited for the time to go to take the bus toward São Bernardo, my mother warned me: “The sky is clear now…” I grabbed my telescope and went downstairs, and there it was: a bright Jupiter rising over my neighbor’s house. I kept observing it for almost two hours, and I got some surprises. I wasn’t aware the giant planet had lost one of the equatorial stripes. I saw a bright spot, similar to the Red Spot, but in a different place and smaller. I decided to take some notes [after some researches, I think it’s the Oval BA]. Ten o’clock pm (local), it was time to take the bus. I ended my observation, a great brief night of observation.

Rodrigo Pasiani Costa

Comet 103P/Hartley

Comet 103P/Hartley is now approaching Earth and increasing brightness but it is not as easy to observe as the 5th or 6th magnitude given by ephemeris suggests. I was able to see the comet on October 7, when it was very close to the Double Cluster (NGC 869-884) in Perseus. With the 120mm refractor I get the best view at 45x: the comet has a big and very diffuse, round coma with a brighter condensation in the central zone. The coma (or comet atmosphere) gets gradually lost in the background sky, so it is difficult to tell its size, but I think It could get close to the size of the full Moon. As other observers have noted, it is visually very similar to big galaxies like M 33 or M 101. Later I could see it with 7×50 binoculars, but with a lot of difficulty and knowing its precise location.

Sketch: 2HB graphite pencil on white paper, scanned and processed with Photoshop Elements 2.0
Object Name: 103P/Hartley
Object Type: Comet
Location: Asturias, Spain
Date: October 7, 2010
Instrument: 120mm f/8.3 refractor + Panoptic 22mm (45x)
NELM: 5.5

Regards,
Diego González

Waltz of the Planets

Hi!

The data of the drawing:
Jupiter & Uranusz

Telescope: 7×50 binocular
Date: 09.20.2010 – 09.24.2010.

Observing Location: Zakany – Hungary, 46° 15′ N 16° 57’E elev.: 129m
This digital drawing preparated GIMP 2.6 programs.

Thank you for it!

Clear Sky !

Tamas Bognar

—
Üdvözlettel !
——————————-
Bognár Tamás

http://tamasasztro.haminfo.hu/

Jupiter Meets Uranus

Object : Planet Jupiter
Date : September 13, 2010
Time : 12:00-12:45 LST/ 07:00-07:45 UT
Location : Surprise, Arizona USA
Medium : white paper, colored pencils, paint brush # 4 and #10 used as a
stump
Instruments : CPC 1100 SCT/ 25mm Plossl/ No filters/ Binoculars 25X100
Magnitude : -2.9
Weather : calm winds, clear skies, temp- mid to upper 80’s

Comments :

There is no better time than right now! As the summer parade of planets bid
farewell and disappear into the western horizon,(Venus,Mars & Saturn)
Jupiter steps up to the spotlight on the East side of town. Jupiter has an
ongoing list of activities happening on and off its surface. Physically, the
sheer size of its disk is expected to reach 50″ as it nears opposition on
the 20th of this month. As of the time of this sketch, it had a disk size of
49.7″. Although not as bright as Venus(-4.7), It’s pretty shiny for being
the only contender on the lonely Southeastern front of the night sky.

On its surface or close to its Jovian atmosphere, Jupiter was recently
recorded to have been struck by some sizeable bolides. Meteors that burst
into fireballs while getting pulled by the gravity of the gas giant. While I
did not notice any of those fireballs(would’ve been cool), I did notice
other features.Through the scope the most obvious is that Jupiter is
spinning with only one of the two major belts. Only the North Equatorial
Belt is clearly visible. Last spring, the South Equatorial Belt just
disappeared before our averted eyes. It’s believed to be hiding under a
thick blanket of ammonia clouds. Previous circumstances have shown that the
SEB will resurface sometime soon. For now, a slight grayish hue is all that
remains visible of the SEB ocassionally highlighted by darker shades of eddy
currents. The Great Red Spot is easy to ‘spot’ since the lack of the SEB
doesn’t mask it from view, it seems to ride adjacent to the South Temperate
Belt. The GRS is not alone, it was found to have an oval reddish storm about
half its size keeping company just South of its perimeter. Under steady sky
conditions, the designated ‘Oval BA’ or ‘Red Spot Jr” was barely discernible
to the Southwest of the GRS. A more pronounced white oval storm was embedded
and riding high on the westernmost edge of the NEB. For added effect, the
Galilean satellite Europa was just coming out of occultation on the Eastern
limb next to the North Temperate Belt.

From a different perspective, through the binoculars, Jupiter is not exactly
all alone. In the same field of view Uranus is not far away from its big
brother. During my observation both planets were a separated by less than 1
and 1/2 degrees. Uranus will also reach opposition hours later after
Jupiter. Uranus’ disk is very tiny in comparison with Jupiter but you can
still get a pastel lightgreen color out of it. I tried to locate with the
naked eye and had some slight success but I believe its because I knew where
to look. Other than that I think I would have a hard time picking it out-I
was in Surprise I have to admit, not exactly dark skies.

I hope you enjoyed this little report, wishing you all dark and clear skies!

Juanchin

Jupiter and Uranus Together

Jupiter and Uranus Together

Sketch and Details by Carlos E. Hernandez

I was able to view Jupiter and Uranus tonight (September 18, 2010 at 01:30 U.T.) under better atmospheric (seeing) conditions while using my Oberwerk 11 x 56 mm binoculars. We had just had a rain storm and the skies cleared beautifully with relatively faint stars (5m+) visible overhead. Jupiter appeared sharp in the binocular field and now all four of the Galilean satellites were visible. Uranus was visible near Jupiter and was now 48.9 arc-minutes (0.82 degrees) apart from it. The other stars identified in my previous observation were also visible but now were now clearer. I hope that others were able to view this pairing as well.

A digital image produced in Acorn.

Carlos E Hernandez

Backyard Jupiter

Object Name: Jupiter
Object Type: planet
Location: Itajobi – SP – Brazil
Date: 2010, July 20th
Time: 04h30min – U.T.
Media: colored pencil on white paper, photographed with Sony Cybershot 4.1MP (Carls Zeiss lens), edited with Paint.
Telescope: reflecting 180mm f/D=6 (dobsonian)
Eyepieces: SP 32mm (34x); Plossl 10mm (108x); SP 6mm (180x)
Observer: Rodrigo Pasiani Costa
Extra information:
That was a cloudy, cold night – for us, Brazilian people – around 12ºC. I had just aligned my mirrors and wanted to test the collimation. After one hour observing the moon through dark clouds, I saw the best picture of Jupiter ever (through my telescope) that night. Even through the 32mm eyepiece I could see two dark stripes crossing the giant planet, which was surrounded by its four brighest moons. Through the 10mm I got my best view, like the sketch. The 6mm eyepiece showed a low-resolution, distorted image. No filter used. I’d like to thank to Gabriel Piani Luna da Silva, that helped me with the telescope that afternoon, and also lent his backyard that night. It was his first time observing Jupiter, and he got impressed. I couldn’t forget to thank his mother, who gave us a delicious cake that afternoon, while we were fixing the telescope mounting. This is my first Jupiter sketch, I hope you enjoy it.

Best regards and clear skies to everybody,

Rodrigo Pasiani Costa