Jumpin' Jupiter!

[PPI Karl]

Something big hit the planet Jupiter on July 19th, and it's left a scar the size of the Pacific Ocean (a little smaller than our Moon).  Naturally, it's reminding everyone of the Shoemaker Levy comet strike in 1994.  Astronomers are still speculating about what it was, but can you imagine if something that big had even come near Earth, much less if we were struck by it? 

Here's a very basic article about the event:  http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090721-jupiter-impact.html

[PPI Brian]

Wow, that's really cool. I have been wanting to get out my telescope and look at Jupiter for weeks. Now I have a really good reason!

Thanks for sharing this, Karl. 

[PPI Brian]

I managed to calculate the location of the impact feature on Jupiter, and tried to capture an image with my ETX 125 and LPI imager. These are raw composites, composed of about 100 stacked images. Should be able to bring out more contrast when I edit them. You can clearly see the dark spot in the southern hemisphere where the comet or asteroid punched through the cloud deck. Hope to have an opportunity to image Jupiter again before the feature is obliterated by winds.

[PPI Karl]

These are AWESOME!

[PPI Tracy]

Wow Brian. Amazing!

[PPI Tim]

That is a nice stack job Brian.

[Gary]

Yes, very cool.  Thanks for sharing those. 

[Gary]

Found a couple of other excellent photos from the Hubble....  YIKES!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-10295368-239.html

[Brigham]

Crikey. Those are some impressive shots for an amateur setup, Brian. How much does equipment like that go for, if I might ask?

[SCP_Dave]

Crikey. Those are some impressive shots for an amateur setup, Brian. How much does equipment like that go for, if I might ask?

$ExpensiveAsHeck.95, on sale

I didn't mean to answer the question, Brian probably got a smoking good deal, but just seeing how dang cool it is, I automatically assumed it was $MegaBucks.95. I'm waiting to hear Brian's answer though because "I want one" (to be said with a 10 year old's voice after watching a killer commercial for a kick butt toy)

[PPI Brian]

LOL! Thanks for the kind comments, everyone. Yes, it's true I got a good deal, but my equipment is stictly amatuer. Some day I hope to save enough pennies to buy some really good stuff. But as the old saying goes, it's not what you have; it's what you do with it. 

My scope is no longer in production, but the current model has a cooler computer and costs less than some digital cameras. Here's a link to the imager I use: http://www.meade.com/autostar/lpi.html

I'm looking foward to the next favorable transit. 

[PPI Brian]

Ran across this on the Spaceweather.com website this afternoon:

CHANGES ON JUPITER: "On July 30, it is evident that there is rapid evolution of Jupiter's impact debris cloud," reports amateur astronomer Raffaello Lena of Rome, Italy. "It is becoming very elongated." A polar projection shows the extent of the debris:


The changes are caused by turbulence and especially high-altitude winds in Jupiter's atmosphere. Polar winds blowing 25 m/s and faster could stretch the cloud all the way around Jupiter's south pole in the weeks ahead. Whether such a stretched-out cloud will be visible in small telescopes remains to be seen.

Amateur astronomers are encouraged to continue monitoring. The cloud is located near Jupiter's System II longitude 210?. For the predicted times when it will cross the planet's central meridian, add 2 hours and 6 minutes to Sky and Telescope's predicted transit times for Jupiter's Great Red Spot.

check out the spaceweather.com website for more information and images from amatuer astronomers: http://www.spaceweather.com/