Amateur Astronomer Maps Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede in Amazing Detail

Using little more than a backyard telescope and his experience observing the night sky, amateur astronomer Emmanuel Kardasis has produced a detailed map of Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede.

“Ganymede was a fascinating target for me,” said Kardasis, who will present his work at the European Planetary Science Congress in Madrid on Sept. 27, adding that he wanted to go after a very small target in order to test the limits of his abilities.

Though Ganymede is the biggest moon in the solar system — larger in fact than the planet Mercury — and can be seen in the night sky with a simple pair of binoculars, it still appears as just a tiny speck of light next to the much larger Jupiter.

www.wired.com...

reply to post by CaptainBeno


Does Jupiter usually have those dark maroon lesion-like markings in the bands?

awesome work!

reply to post by Soloro


Yep, it sure does. As far as i'm aware they are gas and debris. They are gases that are "eddying" bit like a vortex of an aircraft wing. They constantly rotate in place due to other surrounding gasses doing the same thing. Plus the bands you see are rotating in different directions.....I think Someone else may want to help me here??

.

Can someone help me understand this image?:



I understand the top row of images are from Emmanuel "Manos" Kardasis -- the amateur astronomer mentioned in the article. The second row (the sharper images) are labeled as "WinJupos Simulation".

What exactly is the source of those sharper images. What is a "WinJupos Simulation"?

Thanks in advance .


EDIT TO ADD:
I've learned that "JUPOS" is a database tool for amateur astronomers who like to study Jupiter -- but that's about all I know. There are amateur astronomers who are members here on ATS, such as 'ngchunter', and I was hoping one of them could help answer my question.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


From what I understand from the article, the hi-res imagery is from NASA’s Voyager and Galileo spacecrafts.
solarsystem.nasa.gov...

WinJupos lays it out as a flat map.

reply to post by CaptainBeno


Just Amazing!

Its incredible what amateur people can do now with time and effort.......

Now........too all you Second Sun people and Nibiru.........tell me that we wouldnt know about it with people out there like this watching the night sky.........