Eclipse Season at Jupiter

[Ron Schmit]

Amazing shots as Jupiter reaches equinox!!

This is happening because Jupiter is nearing its equinox on May 2nd; the sun is crossing Jupiter's equatorial plane. Around this time, the orbits of Jupiter's moons line up with the sun, allowing their shadows to fall across one another.

Astronomers call it "mutual event season." During the season, which lasts until August 2021, astronomers can see not only eclipses, but also occultations. That's when the physical disk of one moon blocks another. The last mutual event season occured in 2015; the next won't come until 2026.

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Callisto is off-screen, stage left, but its circular shadow can be seen moving across the disk of Ganymede. Actually, look again. Just before Callisto's shadow appears, the shadow of Io partially eclipses Ganymede as well. Wesley captured two of Jupiter's moons eclipsing a third in only 10 minutes. Unusual, indeed.
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[merle]

On a "Cool" scale from 1 to 10.... this is one billion.

WOW

[Sureshks]

Hi Ron & Merle,

Have you found a complete listing of these eclipses and occultations?

Here's the most extensive list I've found so far. It only goes out thru May 25th. These eclipses are going to last into August.

https://www.cambridge.org/turnleft/page ... ual_events

Where's Guy Orwell when you need him?

Suresh

[Deane Clark]

So cool. Too bad it’s only up early in the morning