Steve’s Virtual Planet

Great view of Jupiter’s GRS .. Finally!!

This last few months has brought me a lot of joy showing off our largest planet to audiences small and large at Fernbank Observatory. However, the seeing conditions have been anything but ‘astronomical’ all the way through the late fall. In a couple my posts back in October and November, I had described my adventures looking for the GRS. Well, I had a glimpse or two but nothing too … spectacular.

BUT … I finally had a little more luck on December 2nd. I got there early enough to fire up the 36 inch Cassegrain in the done and the 11 SCT outside.  My session went from about 18:25 to 19:30, with the GRS transitting about  19:00. Not only that but I had the shadow of Io out ahead of the GRS as a kind of marker. I kept the Sky View Cafe app running so I could double check my location as the time progressed.

So, after walking back and forth between the 36 inside and the 11 inch outside, I was getting a glimpse of the GRS. It was there but just not very well defined, more of a hint than a real shape. But soon, my persistence started to pay off. For about 15 minutes, the seeing settled down and I was able to get a good view and good definition with both scopes. The oval of the GRS became more defined and I most certainly caught some level of dark orange through the 36 inch. Perhaps I was even picking up a little color in the 11 inch however I was more excited just to see it clearly using the Sky Glow filter, diminished as it was.

The 36 inch was set at 120 power and the SCT 11 was using a 32 mm Plossl giving it a magnification of 87 power. So, the comparison was useful given the seeing conditions overall for the evening. In any case, after attempting to get something (anything!) like a decent view of the spot, those few minutes were memorable.  And it those memories that stargazers long for!