Venus and Jupiter Together in Taurus on the Morning of July 5, 2012 - Philippines

Venus and Jupiter on the morning of July 5, 2012.

Venus and Jupiter magnified.

It's Independence Week in the US and there's been much talk about the co-called Thunder Moon (because of frequency of thunderstorms) on the 4th of July. Well, I didn't get to see that because of bad weather, but this morning, I looked out to the East and there was Venus and Jupiter together with Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus. Frankly, I've known these two planets have been there for a while, but it's only now I got the chance to take a look at the, soak them in and even take a few pictures with my iPad. Sure, the camera of the iPad 2 is wanting, but it can still take some good pictures of the sky, I must say. If you have a Retina iPad, then you can use that for better results. Anyway, enjoy these photos of Jupiter (the fainter object) and Venus (the brighter object).

Religiously Observing Jupiter Pays Off for Christopher Go After Unknown Object Impacts

Christopher Go is an amateur astronomer in the Philippines. He's know for taking pictures of Jupiter and observing the change in color of a spot on Jupiter called Red Spot Jr. He  alerted astronomy authorities about it. Now, he's known worldwide. That was back in February of 2006. Ten years later, on June 3, 2010, it seems his religious observation of Jupiter had paid off again when he documented the impact of a large object on Jupiter on video. The event, which he confirmed with the footage, was actually observed by his friend, Australian astronomer, Anthony Wesley.

The object that hit Jupiter was unknown, but it hit in these coordinates: Jovian latitude minus 16.1°, and central meridian longitudes CM1: 300°, CM2: 33.8° and CM3: 210.4°."The impact produced a flash that was likely the result of the object exploding in the Jovian atmosphere. It is likely an asteroid. The photo and cropped detail shown here is from a still of the video made by Go of the event.

Wesley and Go (left) are now well-known Jupiter observers. Their success proves that it pays to keep an eye on Jupiter with your telescope. If you have the equipment to take photos and video, then you can capture events that professional astronomers may be too busy to notice. Jupiter presents a nice disk where anything can happen. Cloud patterns change and you never know if another object hits it. If you watch the video, you will see a faint flash (impact) first followed by a larger one (explosion). Here is the link to the video of Christopher Go of the Jupiter-impact event. It was posted on YouTube by kurtjmac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AXSA9rZzrU.

You can follow Christopher Go's observations of Jupiter here: http://jupiter.cstoneind.com/

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Serendipity Counts for a Lot of Astronomy Discoveries: Comet Impact on Jupiter Seen by Australian Amateur Astronomer

Space is a big place and we only have the sky to peek into it. Even with our computer-guided telescopes, we cannot always be at the right place at the right time to see things happen. Fortunately, with a little serendipity and patience, sometimes, your sky viewing will pay off and you, the amateur, or casual star gazer get to make discoveries that will amaze even our friends at NASA.

Take for example, what happened on July 19, 2009 at the Murrumbateman (north of Canberra) home of Australian amateur astronomer and computer programmer, Anthony Wesley (44). He was observing Jupiter in his backyard with his 14.5-inch reflecting telescope when he saw what appeared to be a dark spot on Jupiter. He didn't immediately notice it, taking 30 minutes before he realized it was something else as it rotated for a better view and atmospheric conditions improved.

Wesley described the spot as a "truly black spot in all channels"and initially thought it was a dark polar storm. NASA JPL scientist Glenn Orton confirmed that the spot was a comet impact which caused underlying gases to well up and be seen distinctly in reverse in the infrared photograph above taken by the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii. He says they are extremely lucky to have an impact site at the right place at the right time as Jupiter rotates it more into view. As of this writing, they expect to observe how the spot changes in the next few days.

So, take the hint. If you are always stargazing and paying close attention to bodies like Jupiter (where things are easier to "spot" - pardon the pun), then you may just get serendipitous and make the discovery of the year! Note that in 2006, Filipino astronomer Christopher Go was also at the right place and time when he observed the Oval BA spot or Red Spot Jr. (left; to the left of the Great Red Spot) on Jupiter change shade.

In 1994, when the Shoemaker-Levy fragments crashed into Jupiter, similar black impact spots were made which were clearly visible using my 3-inch reflector. Of course, I already knew they were there, but remember that there's always the chance of spotting something new. Even a small telescope like that can give you astonishing results!

Read about the discovery and see the extraordinary amateur pictures of the impact from Anthony Wesley's website: www.acquerra.com.au/astro