Quote:
Originally Posted by John Hothersall
Fantastic images from when Jupiter was overhead in Oz
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That sort of brings me to my next idea. I wanted to show people what we as planetary imagers see at each apparition. In particular I wanted to demonstrate how this apparition is important because the distance between the Earth and Jupiter is at its closest since 1963. The image in the link below was taken over 2 years ago when Jupiter had an apparent angle size of 42.5 arc seconds. It reached a peak of 47 arc seconds later in the year. Images taken now are 3" larger than in 2008 at its peak. That means that fine detail that can be imaged now could not be seen before. A good example is that of the detail on the moons that is almost common place now. If you look down the page in the link you will see the actual size of the planet at capture. Resampling rates are determined by seeing, distance from the Earth, resolution of equipment and of course personal taste.
Click here for 2008 image.
Now consider that data taken in the next two weeks is important because very fine detail now is not simply at the edge of resolution of our equipment but it can now be seen easily. That makes gaining images in the next two years all the more important as each opposition after this Jupiter appears smaller until it peaks again in 2022. That is a long wait for getting fine detail. Something to contemplate. Do we get larger apertures to compensate?
