Io Transit in the Mist

Object Name: Jupiter
Object Type : Transit of Io
Location: Wilp, The Netherlands
Date: November 18, 2012
Media: White paper, graphite pencil, Photoshop

Last night a nice transit of Jupiter’s moon Io was visible from Europe. The transit of Io (and its shadow) started when Jupiter was still very low in the East, but it rose very quickly. Seeing conditions improved and more details became visible. It was a very foggy evening in the Netherlands, but Jupiter just peeked through the mist. The tiny black dot of Io’s shadow was immediately visible. The moon itself became visible when it moved more to the limb of the planet (due to the edge darkening of Jupiter).
I made a small (2″ diameter), quick sketch of the view through my 16″ Dobson at 225x. I later enhanced the contrast and colorised it a bit with Photoshop, to match the actual view through the eyepiece as much as possible.

(It is one of my first sketches of Jupiter, so I sketched it a bit too small. Next time I’ll try to sketch a bigger planet, maybe 4″.)

Clear Skies,

Roel Weijenberg
www.roelbog.nl