Archive for July, 2009

Jupiter Impact Site Movie July 28, 2009

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Jupiter Impact Site 07-28-09 07:59 U.T

Here is a photo of Jupiter with Impact Mark “closeup” from my backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio.

A link is below for  the rotation Movie in color as well, it really cool!

There was an incredible amount of work that went into this Movie,

I captured over 51,820 useable video frames
Each full color RGB set had at least 3900 frames,

Running thru all the separate RGB channels thru Registax was an all day & night affair.

But now I have a piece of Jupiter history in Movie format, plus many very nice still images of the impact Site.

I captured images starting about 2:00am and ran until 4:30 am E.ST. on
07-28-09
Basically 2.5 hours of rotation compressed to about 10 seconds,

From my backyard Observatory in Dayton, Ohio USA, using A DMK 21AF04 Fire-wire Camera with 2x Barlow, Optec Filter Wheel, attached to a Meade 10″(3150mm FL) SCT Telescope.

DMK IC Capture software,
Maxim DL for aligning, and Adobe PS for processing, Windows movie maker for WMV file.

The Impact Mark is now spreading out, it is at least three times the size it was at discovery, and it appears darker and easier to see.

Get out your small scopes to witness a piece of History, get a peek at the comet impact mark before it is gone.

Here is a link to the Movie….Linked via Youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CKouoeyHhw

Best Regards,

John Chumack

Galactic Images

http://www.galacticimages.com

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New Impact Mark Appears on Jupiter!

Saturday, July 25th, 2009
Jupiter with Comet Impact event on 07-24-09

Jupiter with Comet Impact event on 07-24-09 © 2009 John Chumack

Hi ALL,

A new Comet or Asteroid  impact mark  has suddenly appeared on Jupiter’s Cloud tops.

Some of you may remember the Shoemaker-Levy Comet Impacts on Jupiter  15 years ago,  on July 16 – 22, 1994,  when 21 comet fragments smacked into Jupiter!

Well,  it appears something has hit Jupiter Again!  This time only one comet hitting Jupiter, and leaving the telltale dark soot colored mark on Jupiter’s Cloud tops.

There is some speculation as to wether or not this is a left over piece from the Shoemaker- Levy event from 15 years ago.

I guess anything is possible, but we must realize that Jupiter is like the giant Magnet of the Solar system…it continually  attracts  small solar system bodies like comets and asteroids, due to its immense gravity.

It  also protects the inner planets like Earth by providing itself as the largest target for these objects.

Amateur Astronomer Anthony Wesley discovered the impact at approximately 13:30 UTC on 19 July 2009 (almost exactly 15 years after the Jupiter impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, or SL9).

After seeing this recent information across the web..

I decided to take a look to see if I could see the dark impact site on Jupiter.  It is visible in small scopes.

Here is my photo of the Comet Impact site on Jupiter captured from my backyard Observatory in Dayton, Ohio.

It was very noticeable as a dark spot on the bright cloud tops in the Southern Hemisphere,

It was about 90 degrees from The Great Red Spot,

in fact you could see it just below the The Little Red Spot Jr.  in Jupiter’s  Southern Hemisphere.

Here is my shot thru High haze and clouds, from Dayton, Ohio USA.

Captured with a 6″ F8 Cave Reflector telescope and Toucam Pro2 Web camera.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

Galactic Images

www.galacticimages.com

Posted in Beautiful Night Sky! | No Comments »