Jupiter rising – Rochester Astronomy Club

Jupiter's Great red Spot and Ganymedes shadow — Ganymedes shadow in Great Red Spot from NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, News Release ID: STScI-2014-31

Jupiter's swirling colourful clouds — This image of Jupiter was taken when the planet was at a distance of 670 million kilometres from Earth. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals the intricate, detailed beauty of Jupiter’s clouds as arranged into bands of different latitudes. These bands are produced by air flowing in different directions at various latitudes. Lighter coloured areas, called zones, are high-pressure where the atmosphere rises. Darker low-pressure regions where air falls are called belts. Constantly stormy weather occurs where these opposing east-to-west and west-to-east flows interact. The planet’s trademark, the Great Red Spot, is a long-lived storm roughly the diameter of Earth. Much smaller storms appear as white or brown-coloured ovals. Such storms can last as little as a few hours or stretch on for centuries.

Warm summer nights beckon many of us outside to observe the celestial wonders that appear above us in the starry skies. Long summer days and short nights may disappoint many amateur astronomers, yet summer skies dazzle us with some of the grandest objects in the sky.

Jupiter rises just as the summer sun is setting. With its great Red Spot and the four Galilean moons, Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io, Jupiter is a beautiful sight that can be seen with small telescopes and binoculars.

The Rochester Astronomy Club invites you to an evening of observing our night sky, open to the public at Watson Soccer field, June 7th from 9:20 pm – 11:30 pm. Starting the evening will be viewing the craters on the waxing crescent moon. Mars and Mercury low in the sky, will still visible. As the skies darken, Jupiter rises higher in the sky. In a few days Jupiter with its Galilean moons makes its closest approach to Earth and will be bright in the sky. Soon the Milky Way rises with promises of star clusters and nebulae to be seen. Finally, Saturn with its rings peaks above the horizon.

Observing will be on the parking of the Watson Soccer Field at Essex Pkwy; near West River Pkwy NW and 41st ST NW

For last minute announcements follow up Rochester Astronomy Club (RAC)
Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/rochesterastronomy/

General public is welcome.

By Mike Quirk