It was tough getting to sleep. The anticipation was heavy on my mind. After rolling around a bit, tossing and turning, I got up and got dressed. I loaded my telescope and gear into the car and headed up to the Wagman Observatory.
Arriving on the hilltop at 1, I found two other club members (Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh) in the field with their equipment, taking pictures of the sky. I opened the building and pointed the 11” Brashear telescope at Saturn. I invited the men in to take a look. We introduced ourselves and BS’d a bit while we enjoyed looking at the ringed planet. As always, it looked great!
I had come up to watch the occultation of Jupiter by the moon. These events only happen every 13 years, give or take. The
conditions were looking good this morning, the sky was clear and crisp, and
the moon/Jupiter pair would be in a good position to observe them. Unfortunately, the event
would be hidden from the Brashear telescope by the building, so I closed up and
went outside to set up my gear.
Setting up my telescope came next. Another club member, John Holtz,
showed up and started setting up his scope. I had imagined that more members
would be here but I guess that since it was a Tuesday morning, work may have
played a part in it.
By eye we could see the bright planet getting closer and closer to the bright arc of the moon. The moon was only 20% illuminated and paired with Jupiter, they looked like a poster!
Through my telescope I could see the entire moon. The
majority of it was a dark semi-featureless disc against the sky. The lit
portion beautifully showed craters and mountains. Moving in on it was Jupiter. The
planet's cloud bands could be seen. In front of the planet, closest to the moon
were three of the Jovian moons and behind the planet, another one. This all
could be seen through the eyepiece. It was overwhelming!
The first moon in line, Europa disappeared into the bright
arc and about a half minute later, Callisto disappeared. I lost sight of Io,
the third moon in line and never saw it touch the lunar disc. Then came
Jupiter! It took a minute for it to completely disappear. (4:20:56am by my
clock) Finally, bringing up the backend was Ganymede.
John and I compared notes and shared our thoughts while we
waited for what we imagined would be the best part of the show.
Just over an hour after Europa disappeared, it came back into
sight.
In my eyepiece I was looking at the dark section of the moon.
It showed up nicely compared to the sky beyond. The bright section was hidden
from view. I had an idea of where the moon would reappear but wasn’t sure
exactly. I scanned back and forth. Then, suddenly there it was. There was no
mistaking it; it looked as if a light had been turned on!
Spectacular!
Two minutes later Callisto appeared and less than a minute later, Io joined the train, slowly drifting away from the moon.
Then the real showstopper came, Jupiter. It took a minute and six seconds to fully appear. (5:23:05am) It looked unbelievable; the cloud bands crossing its surface looked great against the dark arc of the moon. About a minute and a half later, Ganymede joined the parade.
I just stood there and watched as the moon slowly distanced
itself from the Jovian grouping.
Then it was time to break things down. We watched as the
Chinese space station, Tiangong crossed the sky overhead. We saw a bunch of
satellites and a couple meteors as the morning progressed.
The morning was more than I had hoped it to be. Seeing the
advancing moon covering over these bright objects was wonderful, but the
reappearances on the dark side were the best. Watching Jupiter and its moons
come out from behind the darkened side of the moon was not only extremely easy
to see, it was also extremely memorable. It was like a science fiction movie but
it was real life! Motion in space! I will remember this for the rest of my
life! (I hope)
What a great morning. Science and astronomy rocks!
No comments:
Post a Comment