Hi all

I'd been looking forward to this busy night on Jupiter for over a week and was lucky enough to wake to clear skies and above average seeing. Unfortunately though, I'd only captured 3 runs before blanket cloud put an early end to the session. Very disappointing, as I had a feeling the seeing would've improved as Jupiter increased in altitude. I woke again for work at 5am to clear skies, but I'll tell myself that it only cleared a few minutes earlier. It's less depressing that way.

In this image, the GRS + LRS and new red spot have just rotated into view, Europa is casting a shadow near Ganymede which is in transit, and Io is heading back towards Jupiter soon to be eclipsed by Jupiter's shadow. In the NNTZ, the little red spot has a white oval approaching it that may merge (noted by John Rogers in one of Tomio's recent images).

Regarding my imaging, I've also solved the problem I was having with lack of light - I washed both mirrors of my 12" newt on the weekend which had a dramatic effect and allowed me to capture at 30fps with a full histogram (in green especially). Amazing how much of a haze had built up on the mirrors after months of dewey nights. I also took the opportunity to cut a trap-door in the tube down near the mirror, to help me de-fog the mirror when I start losing transparency in future.

Anyway, attached is the image and also a simulation showing Ganymede from both the NASA Solar System Simulator and Starry Night Pro. It shows very well correlated albedo features with my image of Ganymede in transit.

A short 3-frame animation of the session can be downloaded here:
Jupiter animation (350k gif)

Link to the image:
A busy night on Jupiter

Thanks for looking. Comments welcome.

Attached Images

	20080525_1520-MikeSalway.jpg (94.9 KB, 54 views)
	simulation.jpg (84.2 KB, 49 views)

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Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

Hi Mike, Another great and beautiful image of jupiter, Simply Outstanding! looking forward to seemore. Clear Skies my friend

Nice movie. Catching detail on Ganymede and hints of it on Europa and Io isn't easy.

Looks like that new third red spot is getting distorted as it approaches the Red Spot. Wonder what its future will be. Jupiter is just a blob for me at 47 north so I'll have to watch your shots to see what happens to it.

Rick

Nice capture on all the activity.

Robert

Great shots as usual!

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Observatorio de la Ballona

brilliant!

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You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. But you can not please all of the people all of the time.

"Why change passwords when you've got a baseball bat?"

So cool!!
Tom

Mike your compostions just blow me away!
Thanks for sharing

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clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

Amazing!

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"Call me old-fashioned, but I think fire is magic. And it scares me a lot."

--The State

Thanks all, I appreciate your comments.

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Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

Amazing work, especially with getting detail on the moons.

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My Astrophotography Gallery
Solar System Imaging Simulator