Hello astronomy fans! I went out last night to see if I could spot Comet ISON, but Jupiter took center stage.
While Mars, Regulus and Comet ISON's position was rising, I looked at the King of Planets and noticed a shadow transit taking place. Two of Jupiter's moons were to the east and one to the west, all very close. Callisto was way off to the east (90 degree stardiagnol), about 5 planet diameters away.
The three closest moons were within one planet diameter. While I was looking at Ganymede's shadow transit, the Moon on the other side (Io? Europa? Help me on this) disappeared into shadow! It went into eclipse! It was the first time EVER that I had seen a Jovian moon shadow transit accompanied by an eclipse of Jupiter's shadow. WOW!!
David Coset showed up shortly thereafter and I showed him Jupiter. Now the two moons to Jupiter's right in my FOV were very close and ANOTHER shadow appeared! It was SO fun!
Comet ISON will have to wait until tomorrow morning.
Friday night will be a triple shadow transit event for North America, the first one since March of 2004. I don't think we'll see it. Oh well, last night was definately AGNFA!!