Of disappearing and reappering acts

Joseph/ July 18, 2012/ Uncategorized/ 2 comments

I presume that last Saturday, at about 3am local (Maltese) time, most people were fast asleep, unaware of a magnificent spectacle going on above their heads. Jupiter and its moons slowly disappeared from the skies, as our own moon glided steadily in front of them, thus occulting the Jovian system, starting with icy Europa and and volcanic Io, then Jupiter itself, and finally large, rocky Ganymede and heavily cratered Callisto. Of course, the surface features of these moons are not visible with small ground-based telescopes; instead they appear as tiny dots

Sights in the sky

At long last, I’ve taken a new picture. This evening was particularly cold, at least according to my perception, although I maintain that 2degC should be deemed cold by anyone. Anyway, I was on my way back home from college when I was met by the sight of Jupiter and the moon staring back at me from behind Tom Tower. As I hastily took out my camera, I expected that I’d be shooting a couple of pictures and move on. However, I soon realized that clouds were moving quickly and that