My First Ever Jupiter Shadow Transit

So on the 3rd February 2015 the shadow of Jupiter’s moon, Io crossed the giant planet’s disc and I was determined to image it. So far, every shadow transit has been marred by cloudy weather or unhelpful times so I was desperate to see this one, especially now that I have my new planetary camera.

As the time approached for the shadow transit to commence I was rather upset as the clouds had rolled across. This feeling got worse when it even started to snow, I was sure that once again I would miss the chance to see this spectacle. However, just by luck, as 8.30pm approached when the shadow was due to be around the centre of the disc, the snow stopped and the clouds parted.

I don’t think I have ever set up my scope that quickly and the alignment was terrible but it was set up enough that I could locate Jupiter, see the tiny shadow in my eyepiece and track it without an issue. Just seeing the tiny black dot was a great feeling although the seeing itself was pretty terrible, made worse by the odd gust of wind.

So after gazing at it for a short period I quickly got my camera out and went to work. I probably only managed 4 runs before the clouds came back over and spoiled the view again but at least I had something I could process. The best of my images I processed is below and whilst the quality of Jupiter itself is not as clean as the one I took the week before under better conditions, you can at least make out the tiny shadow of Io.

I hope to get more chances in the future to enhance my skills and maybe even manage a double shadow transit.