July 26, 2009: Jove's black eye... Fullerton, CA

Jeff Gortatowsky

I was going to go to Little Blair Valley last night and to some dark sky observing, but the humidity and call for possible t-storms, stood me off. I am no that familiar with the ins and outs of the San Diego desert's weather. All is well that ends well. As it turns out I had been looking for a bargain on a drive system for a Vixen GP2 mount for quite some time and someone in Corona, about 30 miles east of me, made me an offer I could not refuse. So I spent the gas money for LBV on the drive system instead. Ok... more than the gas money.

So I was in the backyard still fiddling around this goto thingy (another story all together) when Jove broke past the trees in the southeastern corner of my backyard. Using powers in my TV-101 that varied from a moderate 155x, to fairly absurd like around 272x and 303x, I was mesmerized by all the detail the steady, calm, humid skies brought. The impact site was stark black against an already dark brown multi-layered polar region. To me it seemed a bit elongated east to west. It was just past the meridian so I don't think it was a perspective effect... I noticed three or four festoons hanging off the SEB. More detail than I can describe.

Before moving to California my interest in astronomy was sinusoidal, and when Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter in '94 I was in one of the troughs. Hence I never bothered to get out and see the impacts. :( Therefore I am really glad, courtesy of some space rock I am not familiar with, I got a second chance.

Kudos to the non-stop imagers of Jupiter for making sure no one missed it!