Mon Jul 25 06:29:38 1994
At Mt. Singleton, West Australia, the University of Maryland/ Perth Observatory team used a high-speed photometer and a 14 inch Celestron to look for flashes off Io or Europa during the expected impact times of D, E, K, N and P2. We achieved a good monitoring of Io during the expected impact time of D but no effects are visible in the raw data. We observed a possible effect at the time of impact of E, but due to problems with tracking caused by high winds, we can not yet rule out contamination from Jupiter in the aperture. We observed the position of Europa in eclipse during the impact time of K, but see no obvious effcts in the raw data. On our last night instrument failures resulted in incomplete monitoring around the impact times of N and P2, but again no brightening is obvious in the periods we do have data for. Except for the possible brightening of Io at the time of impact E, the brightness of the satellites we monitored changed by less than approximately 10%. Careful analysis should allow us to look for small effects and better constrain upper limits.
Laura Woodney (U. of Maryland) Roland Meier (U. of Maryland) Tom Smith (Perth Observatory)