
Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
- Frank Ryan
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- Super Giant
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Replied by Frank Ryan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
ps Received confirmation from JPL that this is an impactor, not a local weather event. WooHoo!
Bird
Excellent!!
I'm chuffed for you Bird!
Here are a few more (over enhanced) images to show it more clearly.
also a small & quickly thrown together animation:
Here are the individual shots,
I just did an automatic process with these in Registax.
The colour is a bit off but it will do for now..
I was only interested in trying to see it let alone
make a nice image!
click on image to see larger version
Keep us updated Bird!
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- DaveGrennan
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Replied by DaveGrennan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
First of all sincerest congrats on this confirmation. 'Bonza' as they say where you come from

Frank: Cracking images mate particularly so since the seeing was so poor last night at least up here, love tha animation.
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- mjc
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Replied by mjc on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
Seriously now - exciting stuff.
Mark
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Replied by mjc on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
And good on ya Frank for the early-hours confirmation effort..
Mark
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- DaveGrennan
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Replied by DaveGrennan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
Dave.
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- Frank Ryan
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Replied by Frank Ryan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
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- carlobeirnes
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Replied by carlobeirnes on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
Carl O'Beirnes,
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Unit A8 Airside Enterprise Centre,
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Ireland.
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- dave_lillis
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Replied by dave_lillis on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
I was thinking more of the black colour then the shape, amazing stuff.Dave_Lillis wrote:
wow, thats amazing, it sure does remind me of the impacts that comet shoemaker-levy made all those years ago..
One thing I noticed is Anthony's image has a very sharp edge. Remember the SL9 scars had an arc surrounding them like a black eye.
So Bird, do you think you were thee first person to image this impact site ??
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- Seanie_Morris
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Replied by Seanie_Morris on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
COOL!
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- DeirdreKelleghan
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Replied by DeirdreKelleghan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
Latest on the dark spot from JPL
Outreach Coordinator IFAS
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- dave_lillis
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Replied by dave_lillis on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
Looking on the web, it looks like you were !So Bird, do you think you were thee first person to image this impact site ??

BTW, besides the dark dot, the other detail in the image is astounding!
I see the object is been called "the bird strike"

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- Calibos
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Replied by Calibos on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region


I hope thats not just going to be an astro forums nickname for the event. I know there will be some incomprehensible alphanumeric moniker given by officialdom but I hope that it enters every astronomers vernacular for when they discribe the event of July '09.
Hey, remember the Bird Strike on Jupiter in '09!
Absolutely brilliant!!
I was wondering why the site was so slow this afternoon. Anthony's post here must have been top of the page on Google when people searched for the subject, despite him also posting details on ICEINSPACE his home forum and CLoudyNights.
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- Frank Ryan
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Replied by Frank Ryan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region

'The Bird Strike'
Now thats a name!!

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- johnomahony
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Replied by johnomahony on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
'The Bird Strike'
Now thats a name!!
![]()

I'm heading for Brisbane myself tomorrow. I must see if one of the local clubs is having an observing night before the spots disappear.
www.flickr.com/photos/7703127@N07/
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- BrianOHalloran
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Replied by BrianOHalloran on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
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Replied by DaveGrennan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-112
..and properly reflected Anthony's contribution. Personally I would have preferred if the used the word 'discovery' rather than 'tip' but the amended wording is much better than the original which pointedly avoided mentioning Anthony's part in all this. I've seen a lot of disquiet about this and it is good to see that NASA listened.
I can understand that the PR guys did not want the american public to get the impression that NASA missed this but without the constant observations of dedicated amateurs like Anthony, events like this could well go unnoticed at all.
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- DeirdreKelleghan
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Replied by DeirdreKelleghan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
Jupiter impact sketch from friend Jeremy Perez.
Jeremy also has a sketch contribution to my Astronomical Sketching Exhibition which will
open in Birr Castle Science Centre on September 18th , more on this later.
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- Frank Ryan
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Replied by Frank Ryan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
..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!

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- Calibos
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Replied by Calibos on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
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.
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- Thargor
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Replied by Thargor on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
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- Frank Ryan
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Replied by Frank Ryan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
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?
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- johnflannery
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Replied by johnflannery on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
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
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- dmcdona
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Replied by dmcdona on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
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. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (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 .
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- DaveGrennan
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Replied by DaveGrennan on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
Dave.
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Replied by wellbuttie on topic Re:Dark impact mark in Jupiters south polar region
Here is a link to the online version
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scienc...null&offset=0&page=1
Keep up the good work, Bird!!
Best regards
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