Jupiter impact 2009

As you may have heard; a comet or asteroid has hit Jupiter, leaving a scar near it's Southern Pole. It was discovered on the 19^th July. It is comparable in size to some of the larger scars left by Comet Shoemaker-Levi 9, back in 1994.

Unfortunately Jupiter is a late night / early morning object and still at a low altitude (27°) even when at its highest in the sky. This is when Jupiter is due South at about 1am. Most of the time we are clouded out, or the turbulent air we are experiencing make it appear like a boiling egg. The Shoemaker - Levi scars lasted for more than a month, so fingers crossed evidence of the impact will be around until late August.

For those of you with telescopes of 4" or larger, the impact scar should in theory be possible to view on a night of calm(ish) atmosphere. Remember that with a telescope the image is inverted and back to front, so when you are looking for the impact zone, it will be at the top of the disc, and over the period of an hour, it will move slowly, from right to left. The following list of times are when the impact zone is straddling the central line from top to bottom of Jupiter, the meridian (and so it will be at its clearest to see).

All times are BST (so from the U.K., the actual time on the clock) I've only put down the practical times for observation. Remember that 01:00 on a date, is 1am at the beginning of that day.

Dates for August

Date	Times		Notes
6th	01:59
8th	03:37	23:28
11th	01:07
13th	02:44	22:25	Maybe too early
15th	04:22
16th	00:13
18th	01:52
20th	03:29	23:20
23rd	00:58
25th	02:37	22:27	Jupiter is higher than on the 13th, maybe good enough.
27th	04:14
28th	00:05
30th	01:43	21:33	Unlikely.

For those of you looking for more detailed information about the event try http://jupiter.samba.org.

It's time to do lot's of Jovial dancing to keep the clouds away, cheers,

Simon Lang (Assistant Astro. Secretary)

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