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Phenomena of Jupiter's Moons

by Roger W. Sinnott

Jupiter with Moons
Jupiter with three of its Galilean satellites (from lower left to upper right): Io, Europa, and Callisto. Sky & Telescope's Rick Fienberg recorded this scene on March 16, 2003, using a 12-inch (30-cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a Canon PowerShot G2 digital camera.
S&T: Richard Tresch Fienberg
Virtually any telescope will show Jupiter's four Galilean moons and their interesting interactions with the planet or its shadow. During the course of every revolution, Io, Europa, and Ganymede pass in front of and then behind Jupiter’s disk. Wide-ranging Callisto missed the planet’s disk, as seen from Earth, between late October 2004 and December 2007, but this moon's encounters have now resumed.

For the convenience of telescopic observers, we are making available a complete list of Jupiter's satellite phenomena for 2008 to supplement the monthly lists that usually (but not always) appear in Sky & Telescope. The list is in the form of a 24-page PDF, so you'll need a free copy of Adobe Reader software to open it and print it.

Phenomena of Jupiter's Moons, 2008 (148-KB PDF)



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