I had a great time Saturday night (27 Feb 2016) doing astronomy outreach in the Bronx with
Joseph Martinez (aka Jupiter Joe) and
Camilla Corona . We introduced Jupiter to a bunch of people, maybe a couple of dozen or more, most of whom had never seen Jupiter, or even looked through a telescope before. It's always so much fun to reveal to people that bright yellow-white dot in the sky is a whole other world! Their disbelief at first sighting. The amazement and delight that begins to set in as they put it all together. And the awe that ensues as they walk away and they begin to try and wrap their brains around the experience.
As many times as I've observed Jupiter, it never gets old because it is always changing. The patterns in the banding of the clouds, the positions of the moons... Last night was no different. The two brown bands were very distinct. At the start of our session, only Ganymede and Callisto were visible. Later, we were able to observe the shadow of Io transit the face of the planet, traveling along one of the brown bands near Jupiter's equator. And finally, near the end of our session, we were able to see Europa emerge from behind Jupiter, moving into full view.
It was a great evening of observing and outreach. Thanks for extending the invitation Joe!
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