| Reports | TAC | Join mailing list |
by Jane Houston
The shadows of Io and Ganymede were both visible on Jupiter between 17:30 and 17:50 PST (from the street in front of my house). Jupiter was just peeking above a rooftop, and would soon be occulted by a Monterrey Pine. Clouds were gathering and I was sure I'd miss seeing anything at all. But there they were! Thanks to my Jupiter Moon Palm Pilot program, I see that (smaller) Io is proceeding (larger) Ganymede. I didn't see the moons then, but was thrilled to see the shadows at all. They were clearly shadows and not to be confused with any dark features in the equatorial band.
I'm using "Red Dwarf", my 6 inch F5 Reflector with a 6mm Vixen Lanthanum eyepiece for a magnitude of 125X.
Oh, I just went out and took another look, it's 18:54 right now. Wow!! Io and Ganymede are just off the limb and both shadows are clearly visible right this minute. Beautiful!