In July, 1994, I was a space-obsessed 12-year old kid wishing he had a telescope to see the awesome spectacle that was the SL-9 impacts. It would seem history has repeated itself - but now I'm properly equipped and ready for action. I took my Orion XT8 out this morning for a look at the impact scar. The sky was clear, and I rated seeing at 3/5. From my log:
"0730 UTC. Jupiter currently culminating about 70 degrees above the horizon. VERY bright. I tried both an OIII filter and variable polarizing filter to dim the glare as the disc seemed washed out. I settled on the variable polarizing filter with my 7mm Speers-WALER eyepiece at 170x. The impact zone is fairly obvious if you know right where to look. Clearly visible during moments of good seeing. Appearance of the impact scar varied according to seeing. In moments of excellent seeing it appeared as a very small, crisp oval. Other times it was more an elongated blob, or not visible at all. Using a chart in The Giant Planet Jupiter by John H. Rogers, I believe the scar is located in the South South Temperate Belt (SSTB). Predictions I used said transit across the center of the disc occurred 0747 UTC. It is much darker than the Great Red Spot (which transits about 2 hours ahead of the impact scar and was also visible at the time of observation), but much smaller. Very elongated in about a 3x1 ratio along lines of latitude. Again, very small, and something I would likely miss during a casual observation session. Fascinating!"
I wasn't the only one observing the impact zone this morning: it was also seen by astronomers Jeremy Perez and John K, and I'm sure by many professionals and amateurs around our planet. Stay tuned, it will be very interesting to see how this develops!
Clear skies and great seeing!
2 comments:
Great report Aaron. And very nice catch seeing elongation in the impact structure.
All these planets, the events, the views, are amazing. Space exploration will bring the next turning point in our history, for sure.
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