Jupiter - February 5, 2014

White Storm on Jupiter

Jupiter - February 5, 2014
Jupiter – February 5, 2014

* Object Name: Jupiter
* Object Type: planet
* Location: Laboulbène (Tarn – France) N43.66 E2.22
* Date: 5th February 2014 22h45TU
* Media: pencil HB + 2B, white drawing paper, scanned + rescaled + colorized with PhotoPaint

Orientation: eyepiece view, no image flipping
Conditions: Lot of humidity, 3°C, no wind.
Equipment:
– Dobson Orion XT12 (305 x 1500mm => F/D 5)
– Eyepiece Panoptic 15mm + barlow x 3 Televue (mag x 300)

After a heavy rain, the sky suddenly went cristal clear. So I took my Dobson to a dark lane.

After having a long M82 supernova contemplation, I payed attention to Jupiter.
Its moons were in a rare configuration: all on the same side, but forming a trapeze instead of a line.
From left to right: Io, Callisto, Ganymede, Europa.

I was surprised by the amazing sky quality, seeing perfectly the Great Red Spot and some detail on tropical strips.
I saw an unusual white wave on the right side of the GRS I wanted to keep in memory by doing this sketch.

I could not establish if it was a continuous stream (as I draw it) or a suite of white storm clouds.
I did not find recent picture of Jupiter to confirm.
If somebody observed this, or made a picture at the same period, thanks for leaving a comment.

Thanks for your interest.
Jean-Marc Saliou
APAM astro club

6 thoughts on “White Storm on Jupiter”

  1. @Uwe
    Thanks Uwe, very interesting indeed.
    But I just see the thumbnail, I must be logged on the forum to see the full size.

    Bye
    Jean-Marc

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