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Rare Astronomical Event Will See Triple Moon Shadows On Jupiter

Posted by Soulskill on 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.

11 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"Stargazers..." by stjobe · · Score: 2

    Thank you Captain Obvious.

    Although you should perhaps note that the term "stargazer" is often used as a description of "an observational astronomer, particularly an amateur".

    --
    "Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
  2. You're being followed by a Moonshadow by c0d3g33k · · Score: 2, Funny

    Apparently several.

    Moonshadow (song)

  3. Re:"Stargazers..." by CastrTroy · · Score: 2

    Although I agree they are different things, there are quite a few similarities between gas giants (like Jupiter), brown dwarfs, and stars

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  4. Re:"Stargazers..." by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

    Not yet.

    They're only five years behind schedule on that one.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  5. Article a bit on the vague side by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The event is slated to being [sic] on January 24, 2015 at 4:30 AM GMT and should end by 7:00 am GMT.

    Slated to begin? Should end?

    What kind of delays are they expecting? I know they sometimes push the news back if X Factor overruns, but this is ridiculous.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  6. Cat Stevens is getting paranoid by boristdog · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now he's being followed by three moon shadows.

  7. Re:"Stargazers..." by rgbatduke · · Score: 2

    Really? Don't say that so loud, you'll hurt its feelings. Besides, I thought it was a rare star type called a "black dwarf", sort of the theoretical limit of a brown dwarf with its teensy but measurable gravitational heating...

    Well, maybe not so rare...;-)

    rgb

    (And I'm just kidding, yeah, black dwarfs are dark white dwarfs and brown dwarfs may or may not have had to undergo fusion at some point yadda yadda, but the point is that Jupiter is on the spectrum that includes brown dwarfs emitting only from gravitational collapse and so in some sense is an extremely boring star too small to have ever ignited or just large enough to have barely and briefly ignited -- like all of the other visible or invisible brown dwarfs out there in the Universe. And Pluto is not a planet and shares its name with a Disney dog, and it's feeling bad about that, too.)

    --
    Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
  8. Not that easy to see by Lucas123 · · 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.

    1. Re:Not that easy to see by popoutman · · Score: 2
      Then your 12" dob has some pretty crappy optics. There's absolutely no optical reason why a low f/ratio reflecting telescope will perform more poorly than an equivalent diameter longer focal length scope. Yes, you may require the use of a Paracorr II to minimise coma, but that doesn't affect the area subtended by a planet's surface in the eyepiece. If you have a short focal length scope then you are of course well advised to use decent quality eyepieces that can handle a wide incoming light cone, eyepieces such as the Ethos and Delos range from TeleVue. There's no substitute for clean optics, decent eyepieces, and a quality well-figured mirror. A 12" should outperform a 6" in absolutely every way, and I've seen this proven with my own scopes.

      I recently upgraded from a 200mm Newtonian with a .977 Strehl f6 mirror to a Skywatcher 12" f4.9 dob. I've since been able to resolve features on the disks of the Galilean moons, and I've been able to see the Pup (Sirius B). I've found that I still see more detail on the planets than I used to see with the 8" even when using the 12" in bad seeing. A good 12" scope will outperform *every* 6" scope, top end refractors included, on the planets when set up and built and used correctly.

      As for the OP's point, you'll still be well able to see the three shadows, and Ganymede in silhouette against the cloudtops, and you'll be well able to see Io when it's in eclipse again silhouetted against the cloud tops. I've been able to see shadow transits very easily with my 70mm and 80mm ED refractors, so you should have no problem with your 110mm scope. It'll be small for sure, but still visible

      I've been an observational astronomer for about 30 years at this stage, and I'm saving to get myself a nice 28" f2.7 Webster scope as my perfect scope, both for planetary and deep sky observations.

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      - This sig deliberately left blank. Nothing to see, move along.
  9. And if I were on Jupitor, I still wouldn't care by eepok · · Score: 2

    Seriously-- rarity in and of itself isn't worth noting. It's particularly not worth noting if something doesn't really happen "to" anyone. And (ignoring the harm to all life as we know it) even if you were on Jupitor, you wouldn't be able to see all the moon shadows because Jupitor's so freaking huge.

    Is this something for birder-type people? People that just want to check something off the list?

    1. Re:And if I were on Jupitor, I still wouldn't care by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      I feel sorry for you. Rarity is something definitely worth noting, especially if it's something you have a mild interest in (and while you clearly don't care a lot of us news for nerds type are into space stuff).

      You clearly have never had the joy of seeing something incredible, like another planet travel across the surface of the sun. Have you ever even seen an eclipse? Many humans live their life by the mantra of "I was there", or "I saw that". If something is rare that in itself is note worthy for the people who want to experience it.

      Speaking of, where were you when neil armstrong landed on the moon? Where were you when venus transited the sun? If you missed either of these events, well you'll never see them. For those of us who did witness them they have left a lasting impression which for many of us we'll never forget.