Telescope Reviews: Jupiter and Io Transit Animation

Hi all

On Sunday morning, I was able to capture my first Jupiter moon transit for the season, with the volcanic moon Io transiting the gas giant. I also took the opportunity to create my first Jupiter animation for the season, hopefully the first of many to come.

It was another busy morning (like Friday morning) with an ISS pass, a lovely crescent Moon and then of course Jupiter. Seeing was quite reasonable, and improved as Jupiter climbed out of the muck, reaching an altitude of about 39° literally 5 minutes before sunrise when I captured my last image. The sky was already blue and by this time I could only just see Jupiter naked eye.

The attached image is the best from the session, taken 10 minutes before sunrise and shows Io just about to leave the disc of Jupiter. Oval BA is rising on the right.

I captured 8 frames to create an animation, and you can see the seeing improves as Jupiter gets higher in the sky over the 1 hour of capture time. The first frame shows Io’s shadow just leaving the disc.

To read more and see the animation, click here:
Jupiter and Io Transit Animation - 21st March 2009

Thanks for looking.