Ganymede -Callisto conjunction -5/03/15

Good evening all. If the weather plays ball, here is another conjunction we are having tonight Thursday 5th March. This time though it is the 2 largest Moons orbiting Jupiter -Ganymede and Callisto. Even right now Ganymede is passing south of Callisto by a very small margin. The conjunction will continue over the next few hours too as both moons move slowly. I discovered this on Guide 8.

Clear skies.

Aubrey.

I got them! I had set up the scope just after 6 pm, The sky is now completely overcast now; but I got a few quick glimpses at about 7 pm. With a magnification at 112X, I could see Ganymede north of Callisto clearly separated nicely. It is not as nice as last Thursday's conjunction of Europa and Callisto, but still very nice indeed. I see Ganymede is very much the brighter of the pair. Ganymede is 5.0 magnitude and Callisto is 6.2.

I hope someone is checking them out.

Oh! Io is going in front of Jupiter after 9 pm.

Aubrey.

At 9 pm, I got the clear skies -talk about persistence! Io had gone in front of Jupiter. Europa was west of the giant planet.

Ganymede and Callisto looked magnificent at 167X. There were loads of air currents at this power. The 2 moons were much closer together than at 7 pm -really tight. And I could make out a 10.1 magnitude star south of Jupiter.

One other thing I should say is that Jupiter is still heading westwards through Cancer. It reaches its stationary point in early April. And guess what? It will be passing north of Carbon star X Cancri at that time. I could make out both Jupiter and X Cancri in the guidescope at 11X less than 6 degrees apart. For those who may not know, carbon stars are easily identified by their strong orange colour. I had observed X Cancri about 20 years ago and it is a variable star too. It should great fun estimating its magnitude and to see Jupiter closing in on it over the next few weeks.

Clear skies,

Aubrey.