Double Transit on Jupiter tonight -3/01/13

Thank you, Dave, for your kind comments. Let me be more precise in my reporting.
From the western side of Jupiter, I could see Callisto way out west. The next star inward (still on the western side) was the double star BU 87, and then next came Ganymede and Io. Europa was the only moon on the eastern side of Jupiter.
BU 87 is listed in Burnham's celestial handbook, Sissy Hass' book on Double Stars and on the computer software Guide 8. There are some discrepancies about its colours, but I thought it was orange and white.
And yes, all 4 moons and the double star did all fit in the same field of view -seeing that Bu 87 was situated between Callisto and Ganymede -all at 225X. The 5mm Nagler has an apparent field of view of 82 degrees -which gives me 22 minutes true field of view.

Aubrey.

Thanks for the advance warning Aubrey.

I had a look too, but with much less success than you. The seeing was very poor so, while I could see the shadows of the two moons, very little detail was visible. Also, the double was not resolved. I took some video and will post a picture if the processing gives useable images. Great report - your enthusiasm is infectious.

Mike

Humid night, seemed as though I was looking through a cloud at times. I probably was.

My first time seeing a double transit, and it looked nice and sharp with my 13mm nagler (about 180x). I wasn't paying attention to any double stars! [edit: oops my timings are a bit redundant since I got the shadows of the moons mixed up!]

Got a quick shot with the webcam at 20:06. More as a record than a great image!

darn, didnt see this in time, next time maybe
nice shot btw

Sorry to hear you missed it, Dave. I only got to know of the double transit on late Wednesday night. But the double star BU 87 I only discovered on Guide 8 at 6pm on Thursday between Callisto and Ganymede. Anyone else would have thought it was another moon of Jupiter. But it did have a lovely red tint.
I might be out again on Saturday night, but I will be busy practising music for my church. I have just heard the skies will be clear.
I don't know yet if there will be another double transit -ho! ho! ho!
Still BU 87 probably will still be about.

Aubrey.

Here's a webcam image at the end of the transit (20.30).



The resolution is very poor, but many of the features that Aubrey describes are just about visible. I'm amazed at the local variations in seeing, it was very poor in my area of South Dublin, but Aubrey was able to observe fantastic detail not so far away.

Mike