New impact mark on Jupiter

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:27 am

A new impact mark on the South Pole area of Jupiter
was discovered 2 days ago by
Anthony 'Bird' Wesley the well known planetary immager and
astronomer in Oz.

'probably caused by an asteroid or comet impact'

A few of the lads on IFAS worked out the best times
to try and see it and with last night being so clear and steady
I took the opportunity to image it.
I was also treated to a transit of the Moon 'Io' which you can see
just crossing the limb of Jupiter and it's shadow being cast onto it.

The impact is the dark area (in this image near the top) of Jupiter.

Taken 2.37am with 10'' SCT & Philips SPC900 webcam.

In a recient update this morning from Bird, it appears there are several
smaller dots which would suggest multiple strikes from an object that
broke up entering..

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:31 pm

It's official.
The dark mark is an actual impact.

bird wrote:

ps Received confirmation from JPL that this is an impactor, not a local weather event. WooHoo!
Bird

Excellent!!
I'm chuffed for you Bird!

Here are a few more (over enhanced) images to show it more clearly.

also a small & quickly thrown together animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJWjG70Ru5U

Here are the individual shots,
I just did an automatic process with these in Registax.
The colour is a bit off but it will do for now..
I was only interested in trying to see it let alone
make a nice image!

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:33 pm

Great shots Frank, are those with the club scope ?

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:51 am

Thanks Dave, yes
These were taken with the club 10" SCT.
It was cooled down nicely but I reckon I could
Have got sharper images as I had to use the old
Tucam image capture software which kept reverting to
15fps. The seeing was allowing for 25. But for some reason
I could not set it to that. I think I now know why.
I usually use K3's CCD tools but he never released a free
Key for the free version this month.
I was lucky I had the old Tucam disc laying around.

Did you manage to see this spot at all?

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 4:14 pm

I finally got a chance to properly process the AVI on a
regular monitor (the laptops just don't cut it)
Hopefully it's an improvement.

I was hoping to image it again
but the weather here is awful,

Conn Buckley · Post by **Conn Buckley** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:45 pm

Great stuff frank. Your images have certainly captured and demonstrated the 'impact'. Compliments on your dedication in going out at unsociable hours to do this work. It must have been about 23 degrees high when you imaged it? Last July I think it was only about 15 gegrees high at best and it was not great for visual observing. I must have a look and see .
Is'nt it amazing how there is always something happening in astronomy and often unexpectedly. Conn

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:14 pm

Thanks Conn.
Yes it was that height when shooting.
I was taken aback at how good the view was
having not seen Jupiter at any real good height in a decent scope.

There does indeed always seem to be something happening these days
which is great (and here was I looking forward to a quiet Summer!)

Anthonys discovery seems to have grabbed the media's attention
which is always a good thing and in fairness it's credit he well deserves.

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:02 am

It certainly is a great sight through a scope.
Its such a rare event, we might not have one again like it in our lifetime, but what are the odds of it happenening 15 years to the day of SL9.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2500/375 ... ef02_o.jpg
12" LX200 + toucam pro

Conn Buckley · Post by **Conn Buckley** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:07 am

Great capture Dave. You posed an interesting question about the frequency of such an event and it got me thinking and here are a few thoughts.
Apart from the Sun, Jupiter is the most massive object in the SS at 318 Earth masses, compared to Saturn at 95 Earth masses. So, it would be no coincidence that Jupiters gravitational field would capture quite a few 'strays' entering the SS, as in the case of SL9.
The proliferation of Amateur planetary imaging with decent scopes has only really happened in the last 9 years. That is a very short monitoring period.
I think that the use of webcams only got going in 2002 or thereabouts. But now with many amateurs progressing to more specialised 'searches' e.g asteroid hunting and deep sky imaging then the planets are getting even less imaging now. So, I wonder if such strikes occur with greater frequency and simply go undetected?
Perhaps a 'Jupiter watch' might be worthwhile?

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:35 pm

Hi Conn,
Its good to see you online and observing, I agree with your thinking about the frequencey about these thing, planetary imaging bacame accessable only in recent years, like you say from 2002ish onwards with the arrival of the vesta and toucam webcams.
These event might just be more frequent then previosly thought and people like Anthony Wesley who discovered the impact do image the planet on an almost daily basis. It looks like it was 3 object hitting in very rapid succession, how do we know that this isnt part of a larger string of objects which have yet to impact. ??? fanciful thinking probabily.
Funnilly enough I had imaged Jupiter only 2 days before the impact, I went back and re-examined the images and there is nothign there, I dont think it was the same past of the disk anyway.

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:55 pm

That's a good point.
With the proliferation of webcams and the
fact that it seems many more these days are trying thier hand at this
kind of thing would lead you to conclude that more objects will be picked up.
Although, on one partcular imaging messageboards, a member
had actually captured the impact but didn't notice it as he obviously
is not familiar with the look of Jupiter.
After he read about the impact he went back and looked and there it was!
So although more people may image these things you still need to
have some knolowage of what you are looking at.

I remember last year I think it was, I was out observing Jupiter and
was expecting to see the GRS and I couldnt work out what I was seeing,
It turned out to be a white cloud was engulfing the GRS and made the whole
area look very odd.
So much so I imaged it just to be sure.
....
I was looking to see did I have an image of it handy but
I cant find it on the IFAS site...

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 11:35 am

is this what you saw Frank?
We took this at an observing night last year.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1037/752 ... 7f7a40.jpg

I remember seeing this and was floored at how obvious the GRS was, best I've ever seen it!.

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 8:52 pm

Yip that's exactly it!
Thanks Dave.
I have an image of that exact same 'face' somewhere but for
the life of me I can't find it.
I remember double checking starry night to see the timing of the GRS
as it seemed out that night.