MUTUAL EVENTS OF JUPITER'S SATELLITES
Twice in every revolution of Jupiter around the Sun, or roughly every six
years, the orbits of Jupiter's four largest moons are presented so nearly
edge on to our view that the satellites can be seen going behind or in
front of each other. The geometry favoring these "mutual events" lasts for
several months, and a new season has just begun. More details are
available in the December issue of SKY & TELESCOPE. Observers in Hawaii
will be among the first to see one of these events as Europa transits Io's
disk from 4:18 to 4:42 a.m. HST on the 31st. Predictions of mutual events
for November can be found here:
http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_771_1.asp
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IT'S NO TRICK
Thursday, October 31st is Halloween. With all the youngsters and
accompanying adults wandering around after dark, why not give the ghosts
and goblins an astronomical treat? Set up a telescope in the driveway and
give the trick-or-treaters a glimpse of the night sky. Although there
won't be any planets to gaze at in the early evening, there are other
celestial sights, such as favorite deep-sky objects like the Andromeda
Galaxy, the Ring Nebula, and the globular star cluster M13.
Twice in every revolution of Jupiter around the Sun, or roughly every six
years, the orbits of Jupiter's four largest moons are presented so nearly
edge on to our view that the satellites can be seen going behind or in
front of each other. The geometry favoring these "mutual events" lasts for
several months, and a new season has just begun. More details are
available in the December issue of SKY & TELESCOPE. Observers in Hawaii
will be among the first to see one of these events as Europa transits Io's
disk from 4:18 to 4:42 a.m. HST on the 31st. Predictions of mutual events
for November can be found here:
http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_771_1.asp
------------------------------------------------------------------------
IT'S NO TRICK
Thursday, October 31st is Halloween. With all the youngsters and
accompanying adults wandering around after dark, why not give the ghosts
and goblins an astronomical treat? Set up a telescope in the driveway and
give the trick-or-treaters a glimpse of the night sky. Although there
won't be any planets to gaze at in the early evening, there are other
celestial sights, such as favorite deep-sky objects like the Andromeda
Galaxy, the Ring Nebula, and the globular star cluster M13.
