OCTOBER - DECEMBER

October 27th 2003

The first images of the 2003-2004 season are obtained under a quite turbulent sky. Some tests with filters are done, but they are not really conclusive - the focal lenght is too long to reach a good final SNR.

Meanwhile the STB area of cyclonic disturbance, first seen in 1998, is seen again. In the winter of 2003 it was situated just south of the GRS.

December 8th 2003

A fairly good seeing on this morning, and more moderate sampling allowed me to try different filters, from blue to infrared. At left here is an integrated light image (BW webcam + IR blocking), and at right an IR image.

The south temperate regions are still very interesting. The five SSTB anticyclonic spots are still there, and at least one of the two cyclonic white spots is alive. More interesting again, the STB dark spot, first appeared in december 2002, is prominent in these images.

But the most important information of this autumn is the onset of a new mid-SEB outbreak, unfortunately already quite developped now ; it seems to have begun during solar conjunction (Murphy law of jovian activity).

December 9th 2003

The following morning was not good. The same hemisphere than in october 27th is seen with no more information.

A bit more interesting is the first attempt of getting an UV image (pic at 370 nm). The BW webcam, as the majority of CCDs, is weak in UV light, and in wavelenght shorter than 400 nm it's hard to get something. With only one barlow I made an image of very low quality that has the advantage of existing :).

Here is a raw frame...

December 10th 2003

A very good night, much documents in every wavelenght have been acquired. The GRS looks even more orange-contrasted than last year. In the SSTB, a dark structure has appeared (also seen in UV). The image here are red filter at left, ToUcam at right.

There is no real change in the northern hemisphere. The NEB is still at its "narrow stage" and the NTB remains weak. We need to look for a possible increase of activity in these two belts in the coming monthes.

December 16th 2003

A good night, enjoying a nice view on the STB dark spot (here is a red light image). This very dark structure, caracteristic of the STC (last events in 1995 and 1998) is a little low pressure system. It's interesting to note that it's very faint in near infrared, this seems to be the case of every brown cyclonic structure in Jupiter (like the NEB barges).

The UV image has been taken directly at prime focus of the C14.