Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region

DaveGrennan wrote:

..and properly reflected Anthony's contribution.

Hear Hear.
I also read that report before they changed it and felt they
left the impression that they had been aware of it.

It didn't sit right with me that Bird did not get the credit
for discovering it first.

In any emails or correspondence I have been blatant
in my preface that it was discovered by him
and that he let everyone around the world know about this
via the astronomy web boards and blogs that so many of us use nowadays.

I guess the pros are smarting a bit that they were beaten to it!

I agree with Dave. Even though they have now edited the piece with Anthonys' name, 'Tip' rather than 'Discovery' still rubs me the wrong way. I know what Dave means about the PR guys not wanting to give the impression that American Tax dollars are being wasted by guys 'asleep at the wheel', but they could easily word it to give Full credit where its due to Bird but without giving a bad impression of themselves to the American Taxpayers nor to us Amatuer Astronomers for looking like they are stealing some of Birds Thunder.

Scientists have found confirming evidence that another object has bombarded Jupiter, exactly 15 years after the first impacts by the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.

Following up on the discovery by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Australia, that a new dark "scar" had suddenly appeared on Jupiter, this morning between 3 and 9 a.m. PDT (6 a.m. and noon EDT) scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, gathered evidence confirming an impact.

At JPL we are constantly monitoring the heavens, but the universe is such a vast space that we cannot be watching everything at once. This is why discoveries and contributions by the worldwide network of amatuer astronomers and astrophotographers like Anthony Wesley is invaluable in helping us to redirect our instruments when something unique or interesting happens in the heavens......

Thats what I would liked to have read.

Why did Anthony Wesley post this on IFAS out of curiosity? Is he an Irish guy in Oz or something? Congratulations to him.

Well, only the man of the hour can answer that one..

I'm delighted you did though Bird,
it's that kind of information sharing and willingness
to let others know about these things that makes this hobby great.
It also helps out the pros no end!
(although they may be slow to admit it sometimes)
I was just about to go to bed that night when I read his post,
only for that I wouldn't have seen this and I'm truly grateful
he did post it.

I finally got a chance to properly process the AVI on a
regular monitor (the laptops just don't cut it)
Hopefully it's an improvement.



I was hoping to image it again
but the weather here is awful,
anyone else got any luck?

Congratulations Anthony on the discovery. Brilliant work from a dedicated observer.

Well done to everyone else too on their wonderful images and sketches of the scar on Jupiter.

Actual transit times for the dark spot are at www.astronomy.ie/jupiterimpact.html

All the best,

John

Looks like discovery credit issues have been resolved with the publication of this CBAT.

Well done Anthony and I hope the professionals have said as much to you directly. In fairness to them, they can't be looking at every object at all times... That's where we amateurs come in, right?

Electronic Telegram No. 1882 Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION M.S. 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions) CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science) URL www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html


TRANSIENT FEATURES ON JUPITER
J. H. Rogers, Jupiter Section Director, British Astronomical Association, reports on BAA Electronic Bulletin No. 00429 word of the discovery by Anthony Wesley (Murrumbateman, NSW, Australia) of a "virtually black" spot in Jupiter's South Polar Region, very similar in appearance to the impact spots of comet D/1993 F2 in July 1994. Information at the web site www.acquerra.com.au/astro/ notes that the discovery was made by Wesley (0.37-m f/5 reflector) on July 19.56 UT and shows an image he obtained (Point Grey Research Dragonfly2 mono camera, 60-s exposure) on July 19.66.

Rogers adds that the spot is at longitude 216 deg (System II) and that T. Mishina (Japan) also reported the same spot in an image taken at about the same time.

F. Marchis, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), and SETI Institute; and M. H. Wong, Space Telescope Science Institute, report that analysis of observations of Jupiter's atmosphere collected by P. Kalas, M. Fitzgerald and J. Graham (UCB) using the NIRC2 near-infrared camera at the W. M. Keck II telescope during July 20.468-20.474 UT (central meridian longitudes 283-288 deg, System III) revealed the presence of an anomalous bright feature centered at planetographic coordinates 305 +/- 1.5 deg west, 57 +/- 1.5 deg south. This feature is most likely linked to Wesley's dark spot, interpreted to be an impact in the atmosphere of Jupiter. The scar, having an area of about 200 million square km and well seen in the Kp filter centered at 2.124 microns, has a complex shape, composed of an impact site with two prominent features separated by about 2 degrees and an ejecta field that extends some 10 deg toward the west. The scar is marginally detected in observations recorded in H band (centered at 1.633 microns) and in CH4 (centered at 1.681 microns) filters. Further observations during July 20.619-20.627 (central meridian longitudes 54-62 deg) do not show evidence for additional impacts. See also cilaos.berkeley.edu/~fmarchis2/Jupiter20...mages/Image_Keck.jpg and astro.berkeley.edu/~mikewong/G510/ircolor_annotation.pdf .