Observation by Paul G. Abel: A full day on Jupiter!
Uploaded by
Paul G. Abel
Observer
Paul G. Abel
Observed
2026 Jan 03 - 19:02
Uploaded
2026 Jan 04 - 19:40
Objects
Jupiter
Equipment
- 305mm Newtonian Reflector, x230
Title
A full day on Jupiter!
About this image
I observed a full rotation of Jupiter in one night! Jupiter rotates once in about 9 hours 55 minutes, when the planet comes to opposition in January, it's possible to observe the entire planet over an entire night. I started at 1902UT on the 3rd January and finished at 0512UT on 4th January maiking a continuous strip map of the entire surface.
Seeing conditions were only around AIII with very transparent skies and a number of interesting details could be seen on the disk. This is the first time I've ever attempted this observation; one has to time it right some that Jupiter can be observed for 10 hours straight and of course the seeing conditions have to be reasonable. Seeing was fair but it got down to -4.5°C by the time I stopped at 0512UT this morning!
I have used longitude system 3 as a reference- this seems to be common now rather than trying put both system 1 and 2 on to the map. System 3 represents the internal rotation of the planet.
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Comments
That’s an impressive tour de force, Paul!
Thanks Jeremy! I feel it’s something every visual observer has to do at least once!
That's very impressive Paul. In the early 1900s this feat used to be considered as almost a rite of passage to qualify as a member of the planetary observing elite. Capt. Ainslie made such an observation on the night of Dec 29/30 1918 from 19:15 to 06:00 UT. He would probably have achieved this earlier if not for World War I! He was using a 9-inch silvered alt-az Newtonian and an 8.5-inch equatorially mounted Newtonian and was 49 years old.
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