Rare Astronomical Event Will See Triple Moon Shadows On Jupiter

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 23, 2015 @02:37AM from the pretty-pictures dept.

hypnosec writes Stargazers are in for a treat: they will be able to witness a rare astronomical event early tomorrow morning (January 24, 2015) where shadows of three of Jupiter's largest moons — Io, Europa, and Callisto — will fall upon Jupiter simultaneously. Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles will provide a live online broadcast on its Livestream channel. It will begin on January 24 at 0430 GMT (January 23 at 11:30 PM EST, 8:30 PM PST) and end at 0700 GMT (2:00 AM EST, 11:00 PM PST). They've also posted a short animated video of how the event will appear.

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Not that easy to see by Lucas123 · 2015-01-23 04:12 · Score: 3, Informative

For three years, I've been using a reflector telescope with 4.5" diameter mirror lens. It's not a cheap telescope, but as far as viewing planets, it's a bit like looking at a grain of rice. You get the general shape (with Saturn you can see rings clearly), but you don't get any great detail. So when I see sentences like "Stargazers are in for a treat..." I can't help but think this only applies to people who've either spent thousands on astrological equipment -- or perhaps just people who like looking at NASA's image pages.