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2020-07-03
The Parker Solar Probe (NASA) and BepiColombo (ESA) missions will flyby Venus on July 11th and October 15th. Both missions will obtain observations of Venus coordinated with the Akatsuki mission (JAXA), currently in a long eliptic orbit around the planet.Researchers on Venus atmosphere are using this opportunity to launch a large ground-based support campaign of these missions and the participation of amateur observers can be fundamental to provide enough data of the Venus atmosphere with context observations in July, August and October.
We have launched a campaign to provide amateur support to these flybys and we are actively requesting Venus observations.
See the Venus amateur campaign at: http://pvol2.ehu.eus/bc/Venus/
All Venus observations submitted to PVOL will be used for this campaign.
2020-05-31
Clyde Foster from South Africa reports on the apparation of a bright storm in Jupiter in the South Temperate Belt. The storm suddenly appeared as a bright compact spot South East of Jupiter's Great Red Spot on images acquired on 31 May 2020 at around 00:34 UT. While the storm is observable in most wavelengths, it is particularly well contrasted when using filters in the methane band at 890 nm where high clouds appear bright. As other convective storms its location is in a cyclonic region.
Andy Casely from Australia obtained methane maps of the area one Jupiter rotation earlier confirming the sudden apparition of the storm.
Fast observations of Jupiter are requested to follow the evolution of this storm that could grow into a larger disturbance similar to the South Temperate Belt Disturbance developed in February 2018.
The storm is located at longitude 24º (System III) and planetographic latitude -33º. Juno will observe this specific area in 2 days but ground-based images in this period can help to measure the intensity of the convection in this storm. Previous similar storms have developed with different convective cores activating very closely on different days over the first 3-4 days of activity.
2020-03-31
Andy Casely from Australia reports on the apparition of a well-defined bright spot at high latitude on Saturn at L3 224deg/+71deg first observed on 30 March 2020. This could be a revival of the system of storms observed over most of 2018, which also produced several features observed over 2019. Previous observations by Clyde Foster in South Africa and Trevor Barry in Australia allow to calculate a preliminar set of ephemeris to help with new observations of this storm.
Fast observations of Saturn are requested to investigate the dynamics of this possible storm and the general state of Saturn's polar atmosphere.
The image on the right has been edited for visualization purposes. You can see Andy's original observation on his Google photos webpage.
2019-08-07
An amateur astronomer: Ethan Chappel from Cibolo, Texas, US observed a bolide impact with Jupiter. The approximate time of the impact was 2019-08-07 04:07 UTC. Ethan captured his video on the red channel with a C8, Chroma Red filter and ASI 290MM. The image on the right was produced by the DeTecT software that uses differential photometry images of a video to look for possible impacts in the planet.
Congratulations to Ethan on this discovery.
Observers from the American continent observing the planet at the same time may have got also a video observation of the same impact. If anyone has a second detection it would help to constrain the size and mass of the object, specially if the second detection was made with a different filter. The flash seems too small at present to have caused an impact scar. The flash was recorded at approximate coordinates: 10.0º (System III) and -19.0 (Pg). This is about 60 deg west of Jupiter's GRS. A search on images acquired over the next minutes/hours of the same region might be worthy. An impact scar is unlikely though.
2019-05-22
Observations over the last couple of years have shown discrete events of red material flowing apart from the GRS. This activity has increased over 2019 and recent observations obtained by several amateurs including notable images by A. Wesley and C. Foster show "flakes" outside of the GRS and a distorted shape.
Observations on May 22 show a very distorted GRS in blue and methane band filters that indicate an intensification of this recent activity. The images on the right were obtained by Anthony Wesley.
Observations are requested to monitor this activity. Red, Blue and methane band filters are required to investigate the nature of the behavior of the GRS. Frequent observations are needed as the activity is evolving on a daily basis. Ephemeris of the GRS transits on the Central Meridian of the planet can be found here
2019-05-14
Marc Delcroix has released a new version of the DeTeCt software to find look for impacts in video observations of Jupiter and Saturn. The new software can be downloaded from its github page or from the jovian impacts section in PVOL.2018-10-28
Recent observations by Blake Estes acquired on 22 October 2018 using the 60'' Mount Wilson telescope show a bright cloud feature at the border of the bright polar hood. This storm has now been observed by other amateur astronomers and is visible in some observations obtained with large telescopes.WinJUPOS 10.3.11 (Uranus), C.M. transit times, 2018/11/14 10:06 Object longitude: L = 270,0° - 24,7470°/d * (T - 2018 Oct 09,5) Output format: Date UT (C.M. of System 1) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2018 Nov 01 12:48 ( 60°) 2018 Nov 02 05:14 ( 43°) 21:39 ( 26°) 2018 Nov 03 14:05 ( 9°) 2018 Nov 04 06:31 ( 352°) 22:57 ( 335°) 2018 Nov 05 15:22 ( 318°) 2018 Nov 06 07:48 ( 301°) 2018 Nov 07 00:14 ( 285°) 16:40 ( 268°) 2018 Nov 08 09:05 ( 250°) 2018 Nov 09 01:31 ( 234°) 17:57 ( 217°) 2018 Nov 10 10:23 ( 200°) 2018 Nov 11 19:14 ( 166°) 2018 Nov 12 11:40 ( 149°) 2018 Nov 13 04:06 ( 132°) 20:32 ( 115°) 2018 Nov 14 12:57 ( 98°) 2018 Nov 15 05:23 ( 81°) 21:49 ( 64°) 2018 Nov 16 14:15 ( 47°) 2018 Nov 17 23:06 ( 13°) 2018 Nov 18 15:32 ( 356°) 2018 Nov 19 07:58 ( 340°) 2018 Nov 20 00:24 ( 323°) 16:49 ( 306°) 2018 Nov 21 09:15 ( 289°) 2018 Nov 22 01:41 ( 272°) 18:07 ( 255°) 2018 Nov 23 10:33 ( 238°) 2018 Nov 24 02:58 ( 221°) 19:24 ( 204°) 2018 Nov 25 11:50 ( 187°) 2018 Nov 26 04:16 ( 170°) 2018 Nov 27 13:07 ( 136°) 2018 Nov 28 05:33 ( 119°) 21:59 ( 102°) 2018 Nov 29 14:25 ( 86°) 2018 Nov 30 06:50 ( 68°) 23:16 ( 51°) 2018 Dec 01 15:42 ( 35°) 2018 Dec 02 08:08 ( 18°) 2018 Dec 03 00:34 ( 1°) 16:59 ( 344°) 2018 Dec 04 09:25 ( 327°) 2018 Dec 05 01:51 ( 310°) 18:17 ( 293°) 2018 Dec 06 10:43 ( 276°) 2018 Dec 07 03:08 ( 259°) 19:34 ( 242°) 2018 Dec 08 12:00 ( 225°) 2018 Dec 09 04:26 ( 208°) 20:52 ( 191°) 2018 Dec 10 13:17 ( 174°) 2018 Dec 11 05:43 ( 157°) 22:09 ( 140°) 2018 Dec 12 14:35 ( 124°) 2018 Dec 13 07:01 ( 107°) 2018 Dec 14 15:52 ( 73°) 2018 Dec 15 08:18 ( 56°) 2018 Dec 16 00:44 ( 39°) 17:10 ( 22°) 2018 Dec 17 09:36 ( 5°) 2018 Dec 18 02:01 ( 348°) 18:27 ( 331°) 2018 Dec 19 10:53 ( 314°) 2018 Dec 20 03:19 ( 297°) 19:45 ( 280°) 2018 Dec 21 12:10 ( 263°) 2018 Dec 22 04:36 ( 246°) 21:02 ( 229°) 2018 Dec 23 13:28 ( 213°) 2018 Dec 24 05:54 ( 196°) 22:19 ( 178°) 2018 Dec 25 14:45 ( 162°) 2018 Dec 26 07:11 ( 145°) 23:37 ( 128°) 2018 Dec 27 16:03 ( 111°) 2018 Dec 29 00:54 ( 77°) 17:20 ( 60°) 2018 Dec 30 09:46 ( 43°) 2018 Dec 31 02:12 ( 26°) 18:38 ( 9°) 2019 Jan 01 11:03 ( 352°) 2019 Jan 02 03:29 ( 335°) 19:55 ( 318°) 2019 Jan 03 12:21 ( 301°) 2019 Jan 04 04:47 ( 285°) 2019 Jan 05 13:38 ( 250°) 2019 Jan 06 06:04 ( 234°) 22:30 ( 217°) 2019 Jan 07 14:56 ( 200°) 2019 Jan 08 07:22 ( 183°) 23:47 ( 166°) 2019 Jan 09 16:13 ( 149°) 2019 Jan 10 08:39 ( 132°) 2019 Jan 11 01:05 ( 115°) 17:31 ( 98°) 2019 Jan 12 09:56 ( 81°) 2019 Jan 13 02:22 ( 64°) 18:48 ( 47°) 2019 Jan 14 11:14 ( 30°) 2019 Jan 15 03:40 ( 13°) 2019 Jan 16 12:31 ( 339°) 2019 Jan 17 04:57 ( 323°) 21:23 ( 306°) 2019 Jan 18 13:49 ( 289°) 2019 Jan 19 06:15 ( 272°) 22:40 ( 255°) 2019 Jan 20 15:06 ( 238°) 2019 Jan 21 07:32 ( 221°) 23:58 ( 204°) 2019 Jan 22 16:24 ( 187°) 2019 Jan 23 08:49 ( 170°) 2019 Jan 24 01:15 ( 153°) 17:41 ( 136°) 2019 Jan 25 10:07 ( 119°) 2019 Jan 26 02:33 ( 102°) 2019 Jan 27 11:24 ( 68°) 2019 Jan 28 03:50 ( 51°) 20:16 ( 35°) 2019 Jan 29 12:42 ( 18°) 2019 Jan 30 05:08 ( 1°) 21:33 ( 344°) 2019 Jan 31 13:59 ( 327°) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------Links:
2018-06-08
Mars is getting closer to its opposition in July just at the right time in its dusty season. After several detections of regional dust storms in the planet a global storm in Mars is on its development stage. Images by J. Rueck, D. Milika and P. Nicholas and D. Peach among other observers show the onset of this new large-scale storm. Orbiters around Mars are following the extension and growth of the current storm. A report from the MARCI instrument on the MRO mission is available here.
The image on the right compiled by Agustin Sanchez Lavega shows a comparison of amateur observations with data
from the MARCI instrument on Mars Recoinnassance Orbiter.
We encourage all observers to image this Mars dust storm. The five most recent planetary storms detected in Mars occurred in 1977, 1982, 1994, 2001 and 2007. Typical global storms on Mars can develop and lasts over time-scales of a month or longer.
2018-04-22
Saturn continues to display interesting atmospheric activity to the reach of amateur equipment. An equatorial bright storm with two sides and located at planetographic latitude +6.0 has been observed by several observers since February and notably over April. The feature is probably the same equatorial bright feature observed since 2014 and has been object of recent scientific research(Sanchez-Lavega et al., Nature Communications, 2016).Here are ephemeris of its transits over Saturn's CM using System I. Note that besides the prominent Equatorial and polar storms some other repeated features are observed also in the planet at latitudes +20 to +60.
WinJUPOS 10.2.2 (Saturn), C.M. transit times, 2018/05/16 16:41 Object longitude: L1 = 348,4° - 3,8516°/d * (T - 2018 Apr 01,5) Time interval: 2018 Apr 01,0 ... 2018 Jun 01,0 Output format: Date UT (C.M. of System 1) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2018 Apr 01 02:58 ( 350°) 13:10 ( 348°) 23:21 ( 347°) 2018 Apr 02 09:32 ( 345°) 19:43 ( 343°) 2018 Apr 03 05:54 ( 342°) 16:05 ( 340°) 2018 Apr 04 02:17 ( 339°) 12:28 ( 337°) 22:39 ( 335°) 2018 Apr 05 08:50 ( 333°) 19:01 ( 332°) 2018 Apr 06 05:12 ( 330°) 15:24 ( 329°) 2018 Apr 07 01:35 ( 327°) 11:46 ( 325°) 21:57 ( 324°) 2018 Apr 08 08:08 ( 322°) 18:19 ( 320°) 2018 Apr 09 04:31 ( 319°) 14:42 ( 317°) 2018 Apr 10 00:53 ( 316°) 11:04 ( 314°) 21:15 ( 312°) 2018 Apr 11 07:26 ( 310°) 17:38 ( 309°) 2018 Apr 12 03:49 ( 308°) 14:00 ( 306°) 2018 Apr 13 00:11 ( 304°) 10:22 ( 302°) 20:33 ( 301°) 2018 Apr 14 06:45 ( 299°) 16:56 ( 298°) 2018 Apr 15 03:07 ( 296°) 13:18 ( 294°) 23:29 ( 293°) 2018 Apr 16 09:40 ( 291°) 19:51 ( 289°) 2018 Apr 17 06:03 ( 288°) 16:14 ( 286°) 2018 Apr 18 02:25 ( 284°) 12:36 ( 283°) 22:47 ( 281°) 2018 Apr 19 08:58 ( 279°) 19:10 ( 278°) 2018 Apr 20 05:21 ( 276°) 15:32 ( 275°) 2018 Apr 21 01:43 ( 273°) 11:54 ( 271°) 22:05 ( 270°) 2018 Apr 22 08:16 ( 268°) 18:28 ( 267°) 2018 Apr 23 04:39 ( 265°) 14:50 ( 263°) 2018 Apr 24 01:01 ( 262°) 11:12 ( 260°) 21:23 ( 258°) 2018 Apr 25 07:35 ( 257°) 17:46 ( 255°) 2018 Apr 26 03:57 ( 253°) 14:08 ( 252°) 2018 Apr 27 00:19 ( 250°) 10:30 ( 248°) 20:41 ( 247°) 2018 Apr 28 06:53 ( 245°) 17:04 ( 244°) 2018 Apr 29 03:15 ( 242°) 13:26 ( 240°) 23:37 ( 239°) 2018 Apr 30 09:48 ( 237°) 19:59 ( 235°) 2018 May 01 06:11 ( 234°) 16:22 ( 232°) 2018 May 02 02:33 ( 231°) 12:44 ( 229°) 22:55 ( 227°) 2018 May 03 09:06 ( 225°) 19:17 ( 224°) 2018 May 04 05:29 ( 223°) 15:40 ( 221°) 2018 May 05 01:51 ( 219°) 12:02 ( 217°) 22:13 ( 216°) 2018 May 06 08:24 ( 214°) 18:35 ( 212°) 2018 May 07 04:47 ( 211°) 14:58 ( 209°) 2018 May 08 01:09 ( 208°) 11:20 ( 206°) 21:31 ( 204°) 2018 May 09 07:42 ( 203°) 17:53 ( 201°) 2018 May 10 04:05 ( 200°) 14:16 ( 198°) 2018 May 11 00:27 ( 196°) 10:38 ( 195°) 20:49 ( 193°) 2018 May 12 07:00 ( 191°) 17:11 ( 189°) 2018 May 13 03:23 ( 188°) 13:34 ( 187°) 23:45 ( 185°) 2018 May 14 09:56 ( 183°) 20:07 ( 181°) 2018 May 15 06:18 ( 180°) 16:29 ( 178°) 2018 May 16 02:41 ( 177°) 12:52 ( 175°) 23:03 ( 173°) 2018 May 17 09:14 ( 172°) 19:25 ( 170°) 2018 May 18 05:36 ( 168°) 15:47 ( 167°) 2018 May 19 01:58 ( 165°) 12:10 ( 164°) 22:21 ( 162°) 2018 May 20 08:32 ( 160°) 18:43 ( 159°) 2018 May 21 04:54 ( 157°) 15:05 ( 155°) 2018 May 22 01:16 ( 153°) 11:28 ( 152°) 21:39 ( 151°) 2018 May 23 07:50 ( 149°) 18:01 ( 147°) 2018 May 24 04:12 ( 145°) 14:23 ( 144°) 2018 May 25 00:34 ( 142°) 10:46 ( 141°) 20:57 ( 139°) 2018 May 26 07:08 ( 137°) 17:19 ( 136°) 2018 May 27 03:30 ( 134°) 13:41 ( 132°) 23:52 ( 131°) 2018 May 28 10:03 ( 129°) 20:15 ( 128°) 2018 May 29 06:26 ( 126°) 16:37 ( 124°) 2018 May 30 02:48 ( 123°) 12:59 ( 121°) 23:10 ( 119°) 2018 May 31 09:21 ( 117°) 19:33 ( 116°) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018-03-31
Maciel Bassani Sparrengerger has imaged a bright spot on Saturn CM on March 29 at 08:16:05 UT that has later been confirmed by several observers.http://alpo-j.asahikawa-med.ac.jp/kk18/s180329z.htm
Updated ephemeris of this feature based on images from 29 March to 22 April are given below as calculated by Marc Delcroix. Urgent observations are required at all longitudes to follow the storm evolution, and search for other possible spots.
WinJUPOS 10.3.9 (Saturn), C.M. transit times, 2018/04/22 00:32 Object longitude: L3 = 181,8° - 11,7054°/d * (T - 2018 Apr 10,5) Time interval: 2018 Mar 25,0 ... 2018 Jun 01,0 Output format: Date UT (C.M. of System 3) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2018 Mar 29 08:16 ( 324°) 18:46 ( 319°) 2018 Mar 30 05:16 ( 314°) 15:46 ( 308°) 2018 Mar 31 02:17 ( 304°) 12:47 ( 299°) 23:17 ( 293°) 2018 Apr 01 09:47 ( 288°) 20:18 ( 283°) 2018 Apr 02 06:48 ( 278°) 17:18 ( 273°) 2018 Apr 03 03:48 ( 268°) 14:19 ( 263°) 2018 Apr 04 00:49 ( 258°) 11:19 ( 252°) 21:49 ( 247°) 2018 Apr 05 08:19 ( 242°) 18:50 ( 237°) 2018 Apr 06 05:20 ( 232°) 15:50 ( 227°) 2018 Apr 07 02:20 ( 221°) 12:51 ( 217°) 23:21 ( 211°) 2018 Apr 08 09:51 ( 206°) 20:21 ( 201°) 2018 Apr 09 06:52 ( 196°) 17:22 ( 191°) 2018 Apr 10 03:52 ( 186°) 14:22 ( 181°) 2018 Apr 11 00:52 ( 175°) 11:23 ( 171°) 21:53 ( 165°) 2018 Apr 12 08:23 ( 160°) 18:53 ( 155°) 2018 Apr 13 05:24 ( 150°) 15:54 ( 145°) 2018 Apr 14 02:24 ( 140°) 12:54 ( 134°) 23:24 ( 129°) 2018 Apr 15 09:55 ( 124°) 20:25 ( 119°) 2018 Apr 16 06:55 ( 114°) 17:25 ( 109°) 2018 Apr 17 03:56 ( 104°) 14:26 ( 99°) 2018 Apr 18 00:56 ( 94°) 11:26 ( 88°) 21:56 ( 83°) 2018 Apr 19 08:27 ( 78°) 18:57 ( 73°) 2018 Apr 20 05:27 ( 68°) 15:57 ( 63°) 2018 Apr 21 02:27 ( 57°) 12:58 ( 53°) 23:28 ( 48°) 2018 Apr 22 09:58 ( 42°) 20:28 ( 37°) 2018 Apr 23 06:59 ( 32°) 17:29 ( 27°) 2018 Apr 24 03:59 ( 22°) 14:29 ( 17°) 2018 Apr 25 00:59 ( 11°) 11:30 ( 7°) 22:00 ( 1°) 2018 Apr 26 08:30 ( 356°) 19:00 ( 351°) 2018 Apr 27 05:30 ( 346°) 16:01 ( 341°) 2018 Apr 28 02:31 ( 336°) 13:01 ( 331°) 23:31 ( 325°) 2018 Apr 29 10:01 ( 320°) 20:32 ( 315°) 2018 Apr 30 07:02 ( 310°) 17:32 ( 305°) 2018 May 01 04:02 ( 300°) 14:33 ( 295°) 2018 May 02 01:03 ( 290°) 11:33 ( 285°) 22:03 ( 279°) 2018 May 03 08:33 ( 274°) 19:04 ( 269°) 2018 May 04 05:34 ( 264°) 16:04 ( 259°) 2018 May 05 02:34 ( 254°) 13:04 ( 248°) 23:35 ( 244°) 2018 May 06 10:05 ( 239°) 20:35 ( 233°) 2018 May 07 07:05 ( 228°) 17:35 ( 223°) 2018 May 08 04:06 ( 218°) 14:36 ( 213°) 2018 May 09 01:06 ( 208°) 11:36 ( 202°) 22:06 ( 197°) 2018 May 10 08:37 ( 193°) 19:07 ( 187°) 2018 May 11 05:37 ( 182°) 16:07 ( 177°) 2018 May 12 02:37 ( 172°) 13:08 ( 167°) 23:38 ( 162°) 2018 May 13 10:08 ( 156°) 20:38 ( 151°) 2018 May 14 07:08 ( 146°) 17:39 ( 141°) 2018 May 15 04:09 ( 136°) 14:39 ( 131°) 2018 May 16 01:09 ( 126°) 11:39 ( 120°) 22:10 ( 116°) 2018 May 17 08:40 ( 110°) 19:10 ( 105°) 2018 May 18 05:40 ( 100°) 16:10 ( 95°) 2018 May 19 02:41 ( 90°) 13:11 ( 85°) 23:41 ( 80°) 2018 May 20 10:11 ( 74°) 20:41 ( 69°) 2018 May 21 07:11 ( 64°) 17:42 ( 59°) 2018 May 22 04:12 ( 54°) 14:42 ( 49°) 2018 May 23 01:12 ( 44°) 11:42 ( 38°) 22:13 ( 34°) 2018 May 24 08:43 ( 28°) 19:13 ( 23°) 2018 May 25 05:43 ( 18°) 16:13 ( 13°) 2018 May 26 02:44 ( 8°) 13:14 ( 3°) 23:44 ( 358°) 2018 May 27 10:14 ( 352°) 20:44 ( 347°) 2018 May 28 07:15 ( 342°) 17:45 ( 337°) 2018 May 29 04:15 ( 332°) 14:45 ( 327°) 2018 May 30 01:15 ( 322°) 11:46 ( 317°) 22:16 ( 312°) 2018 May 31 08:46 ( 306°) 19:16 ( 301°) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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