Sun Jul 24 16:58:30 1994
Thanks to the courtesy of the scheduled observers, and the observatory director, we are continuing to monitor Jupiter under perfectly clear skies (too late, alas for impacts F and L!) at 2.0-4.0 um and at 8-14 um. We are happy to report that most of the spots are still alive and well. At 10 um we continue to see significant emission from sites G/S/R (bright and extended 5" EW with a sinuous appearance), Q (faint), H, K/W/U (about twice the surface brightness of Jupiter, and extended to the S) and L (very bright, especially on the limb). Some of the spots are now sufficiently extended EW for us to resolve spatial variations in their 8-14 um spectra.
We are also obtaining regular sequences of narrowband CVF images between 2.0 and 2.35 um, and between 3.0 and 4.0 um. At these wavelengths, spots G/S, R, Q1, H, E, A, C, K/W and L continue to be extremely prominent, especially at 2.35 um. On July 24, at 5:00 UT, a small feature was visible slightly south of Q1 and R, but located midway between them in longitude. A possible candidate for Q2, perhaps? Features G/S, H, K, and L are very extended, each with a distinctive shape which varies systematically with projection effects across the disk. K still shows a bright NW core, with a long curling 'tail' shaped like a ? on its side, open to the south. G, H, E and L all show prominent extensions toward (jovian) east. Only the fainter R, Q1, A, and C spots look more or less circular, although none of these images has been subjected to any analysis as yet. We are too busy filling Exabyte tapes! Current count is well over 3000 near-IR images over the last 11 days.
No impact site that we have ever detected has disappeared, and
it is not clear that they have even faded. Tonight we hope to see
site A on its 21st rotation; a fitting farewell to Jupiter and
SL9. Paul Chodas visited the telecope last night, and was able
to see for himself the damage his babies have wrought.
Last Modification: 94/08/01 15:05 MET
Curator: C. Kronberg (smil@agleia.de)