(Posted 6 December 2012) With Jupiter now placed for prime viewing in the evening sky, now is the time to keep an eye out for events in the Jovian system.
A couple of events occur tonight at a reasonable time for those who don’t like to stay up at night. The first is the opportunity to see the shadow of Jupiter’s moon Io fall onto the cloud tops of Jupiter as Io passes between Jupiter and the Sun. With a reasonably high magnification and a Dobsonian telescope, I could easily see Io’s shadow as a tiny round disc last year. The challenge is to see if you can see Io. That I could do. Maybe you will have more success. The above chart shows Io’s position above Jupiter at 10 pm AEST / 11pm AEDT.
The second event for tonight is the transit of Jupiters ‘Great Red Spot‘ across the face of Jupiter. It is ideally placed to view on the side of Jupiter facing towards Earth at 10.40 pm AEST / 11.40 AEDT. I found I could only just make it out in my eight inch telescope last year as a very pale salmon coloured shape. It is not the distinct reddish colour that it was in years past. Use this page to generate more Great Red Spot viewing times if tonight is cloudy for you.
Finally, you may be wondering, where do I look for Jupiter. Just wait till the sky is dark and look above the Eastern horizon for the brightest star you can see. That’t Jupiter. Alternatively, look at some of the finder charts on my December 2012 Sky & Space Events page.
