Close encounters Jovian moons

Anybody watching these Jovian moon close encounters? With a refractor on the driveway this AM I watched two of the moons separated by about 1 arc second (compared to adjacent double star in Leo said to have 1.1 arc second separation that looked about the same.) This was at about 1035 UT. One can clearly see the difference in size of the Gallilean moons when they are juxtaposed like this. Seeing was surprisingly good for the Midwest in winter--I could see detail within the great pale spot. The Sky and Telescope web site lists the times for multiple eclipses and occultations of Jovian moons in the next few months. Should be nice at WSP in the Florida Keys where the subarcsecond seeing occurs with some frequency.

Say Kim, I saw them too: Gamymede and Europa but at 7:00UT. They're were farther apart still 'cause my 4" TV-102 Light Cup could barely split it at 73x; so I'm guessing maybe 5"
or 4". You're right, a very neat sight and the size difference were very obvious.

Ron B[ee]

If you want this type of information about the moons of jupiter and saturn and all the phases that occur, get the program called Planets. It is a visual depiction of all the events that take place. You can see them years in advance and know exactly when and what time they will occur. The program is free but better than most. You may find The Planets at www.cpac.org.uk. I use it to set up my nights viewing. Learning curve is in the area of easy but effective. Be sure to enter the proper information so that its accurate for your area.

I also observed from 5 to 530UT. At 5UT using 60x I could see the pair of moon(s) looked different compared to the other two. At 120x I could tell that both moons were just touching. By 515UT I could see two distinct disks, one
larger than the other, just separated at 120x. By 530UT they were cleanly separated at 120x. I went back inside and using The Sky software checked the separations. At 5UT they were 1.8", at 515UT 2.1" and at 530UT they were 2.3" apart. I was using a 92mm refractor and the seeing was better than I'd expected with the jet overhead here in the Central IL.

BTW. at 1035UT they were separated by 1.2", your estimation was right on Kim, nice going. At 7UT they were 2.8" apart, beginning to close back in when you observed Ron.

Stephen

Tony Donnangelo, Maura Smith, and I had a look at Ganymede and Europa after observing the Hesiodus Lunar Sunrise Ray. They formed a very close pair separated by a few arc seconds at most. We used his Takahashi FS-102 apochromatic refractor at magnifications up to 234x. There were definite size and color differences between the two Galilean satellites. After a much needed warm-up break we caught a glimpse of the GRS sometime around 2:30 UT as it approached the preceding limb.

Before Maura and I arrived at Tony's residence he observed a previously unreported triple sunrise ray in the crater Parry.

Tony and I also spent some viewing Saturn. The C ring was visible at the ansae along with a definite demarcation of the polar hood and two cloud belts.

Dave Mitsky