Jupiter: Opposition 2005

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. The planet is 11 earth diameters wide. To give an idea of the size of the planet, the great red spot, visible in some of the images below could easily fit the earth within it. It is about 5 times further from the Sun that we are here on planet earth. It takes about forty minutes on average for the light from Jupiter to reach our eyes.
Jupiter is probably my favourite planet to observe, this is because it looks different from day to day, and year to year, there is always something happening on the planet.

	29th May 2005
	28th May 2005 These set of images were taken between 21:00UT and 22:30UT. They show Io leaving the disk of Jupiter, followed by it's shadow. Also apparent is Europa coming out of eclipse in Jupiter's shadow at 21:31UT. Callisto is also visible below the planet. Callisto is somewhat fainter than the other moon's and was lost in the earlier "poor seeing" images. Ganymede is to the far left. Below is one frame showing all four moons of Jupiter and Io's shadow. The only thing missing is the Great Red Spot.

	17th May 2005
	12th May 2005 The seeing on this night wasn't too good, however I wanted to capture an image of the shadow of Io. Not so bad considering the conditions.
	7thMay 2005 Above is a small animation of the three images opposite. The animation shows how the seeing has worsened during the imaging session. The advantage of an animation is that is confirms whether features are real or just noise. True features will move with the rotation of the planet, noise or processing artifacts will not.
	May 1st 2005 The seeing on this night was pretty good for my location. There is an interesting feature in the centre of the disc at 21:31UT. A double festoon feeding into the equatorial band.
	April 29th 2005 This was a repeat of my experiment. I have an IR pass filter, made from the developed end of print film. I also have a cheap UV pass filter I bought to image the clouds of Venus (so far unsuccessfully.) I used these to produce the IR (22:11UT) and UV (22:04UT) images opposite, in conjunction with a Vesta 675, modified with a black and white CCD. The image at the bottom made at 22:11UT is one of my best and shows a surprising amount of detail.
	April 29th 2005 This was something of a experiment. I have an IR pass filter, made from the developed end of print film. I also have a cheap UV pass filter I bought to image the clouds of Venus (so far unsuccessfully.) I used these to produce the IR (22:48UT) and UV (22:38UT) images opposite, in conjunction with a Vesta 675, modified with a black and white CCD. Notice that the moon Io is much brighter in IR light than it is in UV. Also notice the lack of detail in the northern polar region of the planet in both the IR and UV images. The Northern Temperate Band is completely missing.
	18th April 2005 This was my first attempt at imaging the planet in UV light. Notice how bright the Great Red Spot is in UV light. The moon in the image is Io. Ganymede is also visible to the far left if the colour image (with the UV inset). Note to myself: The times in the images should read 23:00UT not 11:00UT 22:29UT not 10:29UT & 23:04UT not 11:04UT.