GANYMEDE TRANSIT ACROSS JUPITER, 4th March, Aus.

[bigjoe]

Sunday: 4 March 2018, Sydney Time..

GANYMEDE will Transit Jupiters face at..

00h 32m 20s... at distance: 5 748843249 km or 41 light minutes away !.

Need to adjust for Daylight Savings, so add 1 hr East Coast of Australia here.

Altitude: 33.654° Azimuth: 89.172° East ...at time of Transit.

R.A. 15h 24m 17s Dec. - 17° 25' 27".

Jupiter Rises: At 22h 44.1m on the previous day here in Sydney: At magnitude -2.2, Size 39.33", and Ganymede at : Magnitude 5.3 ...adjust for DS.

Great Red Spot will be behind Jupiters disk at that time..does not rotate around till 8am...Transit egress at 01h 41m AEST...So about an hr.

Something worth watching, and imaging for those inclined...Esp if you have a big scope and excellent seeing, and may notice or image some ALBEDO markings on Ganymedes 1.5 " plus disk, as is the case with Mars and Olypmus Mons...

I know Ill be watching...weather permitting.

bigjoe

[Wavytone]

Well you know what the weather gods will do in response...

... produce a clear evening to convince us to set up, some sucker holes to keep us guessing, and 5 minutes before cloudy over completely. And clear again 5 minutes after it’s over.

[bigjoe]

Indeed!

Almost exactly what happened for my proposed last Lunar Eclipse observation...

I'll be ready for any sucker hole...pretend to the Cloud Gods to fall asleep, then rush over to a fully prepared and tracking scope...pointed up and under my patio of course.

bigjoe.

[OzEclipse]

Animation and contact times for these 3 events on March 4.

Ganymede transit
Io shadow transit
Io transit

http://joe-cali.com/astronomy/downloads/Ganymede_transit.html

Joe

[Rkonrad]

Fantastic I just joined

[OzEclipse]

Welcome. Be warned that my contact times are Australian Eastern Summer time UT+11hrs. It might occur before Jupiter rises in Joberg.

Joe

[skysurfer]

However enough opportunities in JNB. Check Stellarium / Skysafari apps or the Astronomy Guide for Southern Africa.

[bigjoe]

Wow! Joe the detail on big Ganymede in that image is extraordinary!

Enjoyed your animation too ..not enough watch these Transits ..I say if one can, at least have a quick look at the time!

With thanks bigjoe.

[OzEclipse]

Thanks Joe,
I can't take too much credit, just was looking it up for myself in Starry Night and decided to export the animation & put it online to share. Took a few goes before I got the size and speed correct. Figured nobody wants to watch it in real time on the screen (5hrs) :lol:

This evening, I just made a bigger screen filling animation. Follow the link to animation 2 - file size 19MB.

Note that in Eastern Australia, it is Sunday morning (ie Saturday night) so for once we don't have to go to work bleary eyed to watch something interesting.

The European Model http://yr.no is even saying clear Saturday night in this region. Euro model works well for this region. Skippysky (GFS) also indicating clear. Cloud free night is offline at time of writing 6:30pm Thursday 1/3.

Anybody intending to observe, the times published last night are only approximate taken by observing the contacts in Starry Night.

Tonight, I have updated the site with the times below, taken from -
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/wp-content/observing-tools/jupiter_moons/jupiter.html#

Saturday, March 3, 2018

01:16 UT, Europa begins transit of Jupiter.
01:20 UT, Europa's shadow leaves Jupiter's disk.
03:36 UT, Europa ends transit of Jupiter.
09:24 UT, Ganymede's shadow begins to cross Jupiter.
11:18 UT, Ganymede's shadow leaves Jupiter's disk.
Events in red above the line occur below the horizon and are not visible.
11:48 UT, JUPITER RISES EAST COAST AUSTRALIA
13:48 UT, JUPITER RISES WEST COAST AUSTRALIA
14:30 UT, Ganymede begins transit of Jupiter.
15:24 UT, Io's shadow begins to cross Jupiter.
15:42 UT, Ganymede ends transit of Jupiter.
16:38 UT, Io begins transit of Jupiter.
17:36 UT, Io's shadow leaves Jupiter's disk.
18:46 UT, Io ends transit of Jupiter.

Joe

[Wavytone]

Not exactly rare... see https://www.projectpluto.com/jevent.htm#mar

Ganymedes shadow transits nicely on the night of 10th March starting 13:25 UT, ie 00:25 daylight saving time on 11th for us. Many more chances through the year...

[bigjoe]

Thanks for your input Wavy.

Certainly a lot of Transit action on March 10th!

Indeed Wavy, theres plenty of these during the year ...not all though occur at ideal times for viewing.

3 to 4th March on the Saturday to Sunday will be an ideal time to prepare for this one in Oz....and as Joe Cali says most won't have to deal with bleary eyes for work next day...which is usually the case!

bigjoe.

[Wavytone]

Joe, the evening of 4th June looks interesting too.

Looks like the weather is going to go cloudy again tomorrow night. Too much humidity, as usual.

[bigjoe]

Dosen't look too good as usual of late Wavy ...keeping my fingers crossed.

True..even more of Ganymede at 20.44 AEST, 4th June for its Transit, and Shadow Transit at 23.04 AEST
As well as occultations of Io etc.
Maybe the weather Gods will be kinder in June!

bigjoe

[Wavytone]

Hmm.

11pm and the northwest (Orion) looks reasonably clear but the seeing is terrible. East... well... the moon is rising in what looks like fog, no stars visible just a whiteout. Low coastal fug from the humid sea air once again.

I'll take a look again after midnight but if its no better I'll pass.

Might be OK for someone further inland or in the mountains.

[bigjoe]

Sounds like normal for here in Sydney lately Wavy...will check after Midnight .
bigjoe

[OzEclipse]

Yeah, it was clear until Jupiter rose then clouded out here too.

Joe

[Wavytone]

Right. Now who bought new gear on Saturday ?

Fess up, now, and apologise for another weeks worth of clouds.

[bigjoe]

Trust you didn't spend too much Wavy....the cloud gods are always watching!

bigjoe.

[Wavytone]

We need a sacrifice to appease the cloud gods... a big dob should do nicely, lots of plywood ... I’ve got some matches somewhere... :D

[bigjoe]

Perhaps someone here has an old Dob with a bad mirror they can sacrifice thats one way of getting even I suppose.

bigjoe.

[bigjoe]

Did get a peek when this happened and it was lovely for a few minutes at 275x with a Takahashi 3.3mm. Toe Ortho...Ganymede big enough to resolve as a disk right on the South pole, and stark white when barlowed...weather here still dissapointing, so on to other tasks for now.

bigjoe.

[Wavytone]

Joe its looking really nice here, will set up about 11:30pm.

[bigjoe]

Glad to hear..I had to go out and missed!
bigjoe.