[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi all,

Did anyone else see Ganymede's shadow transit last night? I was unable to clearly detect the Bird Strike last week, but this shadow was very easy - the best transit that I've seen so far. I spent nearly an hour observing it, and it's amazing how fast the moons move in such a short time! At the start of the session, Ganymede was well separated from the limb of Jupiter and the shadow was over towards the limb, and by the time I packed up Ganymede was crossing the limb and the shadow was near the central meridian.

The shadows are definately easier to detect this year, as they are falling in the lighter cloud band near the equator. The seeing did not appear to be great for most of the time, but there were periods when it was quite good.

Anyway, I'll try and catch a few more of these shadow transits while Jupiter is near opposition!

Cheers,
Stephen