Greetings All
Jupiter is in opposition on Sunday 5 January at 23h00 says my new copy of SGAS. It is then a mere 630 million kms from us.
I have attached a distillation of the best Jupiter Events to observe during the month.
For shadow transits, Io, is the closest moon to the planet and should produce the best shadow for a shadow transit (even though it is also the smallest moon). Great Red Spot (GRS) transits are as indicated, the time of the GRS transit is when the GRS is on the Jovian meridian facing us (i.e. slap in the middle of the planet).
I started setting up for the occasion last night and attach one of the photos taken with the camera in an afocal arrangement on a zoom telescope eyepiece. The focus is anything but good, but this was a trial run only.
The camera lens used is a 50 mm portrait lens, ISO 1600, F8.0, shutter speed 1/13 sec. I took 26 images then selected the best one of the lot. The attached image was taken at midnight.
Camera field of view is 6 arc minutes by 4 arc minutes, Jupiter’s angular equatorial diameter was 46.72 arc seconds at the time of the photo.
I intend doing nightly trials to see if I can improve. I intend to try for the GRS transit on 2 Jan, weather permitting.
I have tried calibrating with Nebulosity but it seems to blur the stacked image.
Best Jovian Wishes for 2014
Johan Retief