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Jupiter 2003

The University of Chicago Yerkes Observatory, 24 inch Telescope
Jupiter Sequences Fts Images

Jupiter, Feb. 28, 2003

The moons appeared close to Jupiter's disk, all in the 5 arc minute field of view of the CCD camera on the Yerkes 24 inch telescope.  Images were taken all night long.  Link to the images.

Which Moon is Which?  Brightness is a Key! The brightness of the moons in order is Ganymede, Io, Europa, Callisto.  The images that we take are usually filtered. This order is reliable as measured on the images by Find or Auto Aperture if the filter is V or R, green or red.  However with a B or blue filter, Io and Europa are close in brightness, with Europa usually having slightly more counts. Try this out with B, V, and R filtered images.  If you use Data Tools, Find on these images, change Sky + 4 to Sky + 40.  Then the software will identify all four moons and give you a brightness count for each.  You can identify the moons by brightness order in the V or R filtered images.  Ganymede, Io, Europa, Callisto is the order brightest to dimmest. 

Some images show a dark spot or spots on Jupiter.  Could this be a moon or a shadow of a moon?  Can you make out the Great Red Spot?  It looks white in this image because the image was taken with a red filter. Link to this image here.

 

Add seven images to make a composite image showing the moons during six hours of time.  As you add or subtract the images you will be able to keep track of the individual moons and ponder characteristics of their orbits.  One moon's orbital radius could be found.  Do you know which one, and could you measure the radius of its orbit in pixels?. Are any of the moons passing in front of Jupiter.   Can you calculate the speed of any of the moons?  The exact time each image was taken is under Data Tools, Image Info.  Can you figure out the mass of Jupiter after analyzing the orbits of one or more of the moons?

Jupiter, Feb. 27, 2003.  Mosaic Images.  Jupiter's Moons often appear farther away from Jupiter than the field of view for the CCD camera on the 24 inch telescope.  The field of view is only 5 arc minutes.  Linked here are two mosaic images of Jupiter and its moons that are a composite to show all four moons by merging sets of two pictures together.  The images are aligned so you can add or subtract them to determine the motion of the moons.  The time interval is approximately 84 minutes.

Jupiter Feb. 21, 2003

Click on the picture.

Investigate these 'spots' on Jupiter with five images taken at half hour intervals.

Jupiter and Saturn. 

The Valentines Day 2003 web page shows the motions of the moons.
Download the .fts images of Jupiter.  Download the .fts images of Saturn.

Jupiter January 17, 2003. 
Here is a composite of Jupiter images.  What do you notice?  What are your questions and explanations?  How much time do you think has elapsed between image a and image d?  Which moon is which? Download the .fts images for January 17, 2003.  Open and add or subtract to make a composite with HOU-IP software.

If you select and add together four images of Jupiter (jup20030117a.fts, b.fts, c.fts, and d.fts) and then click on the box in front of LOG in the toolbar, you can see the added positions of three of the moons. Here we have chosen IGREY as the color scheme.  Look under Data Tools for each image to see the TIME-OBS to find out what time it was when the image was taken.  This time is UT.   UT is the time in Greenwich, England.  Locally the time was CST which is six hours earlier than UT.

Procedure in HOU-IP: Open jup030117-a.fts.  Then go to Manipulation, Add.  Click on File from disk and find jup030117-b.fts.  Select it and click on open.  Also click on Open file in new window.  Then click OK.  Now repeat but you don't have to save in a new window because you already have a new window.  Manipulation, Add, jup030117-c.fts, Open, OK.  Manipulation, Add, jup030117-d.fts, Open, OK. You can view your result any color scheme.  This one is IGREY.  

Where is the other bright moon of Jupiter?  We had to move the telescope west to see the other bright moon.  (North is up and East is left in these images.) You can see one of the moons visible in the previous images and you can also see the one that was missing.  Many other images were taken of Jupiter so you can see the motion of these moons too.  The UT time of this image is 06:19:47.  See how it is designated in the image name. 

Link to all the images in the HOU Database for the 24 inch telescope taken for this date, January 17, 2003. 

See a sequence of images taken by the Yerkes Rooftop Telescope 10 inch taken over five hours!

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03/02/2003

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