Jupiter Moons' Applet
This applet shows the current positions of the four biggest Jupiter
moons.
Notes:
- North is up in the diagram, so the view
makes sense when you are North of Jupiter seeing it with binoculars.
- The applet shows GMT time, not your local time.
- To test the applet, I've looked at the moons about half a dozen
times with binoculars,
and apparently the applet gets the moons' positions more or less right.
- I've seen just one eclipse of a Jupiter moon, with a 102 mm
refractor, and it happened ten minutes after the time predicted by this
applet. So if you are planning
to observe eclipses, get accurate predictions
elsewhere.
- I calculate the positions by feeding TU
to the Meeus algorithms, which expect to find TDT.
Therefore, predictions for past centuries are very inaccurate.
- This applet has a kind of guarantee: if you see a shadow
transit where the applet says you shouldn't, complain fiercely, and
I'll try to fix it.
If you don't see the shadows where it says they should be, AND your
scope has less than 200 mm aperture, complain politely.
- The sizes of the dots in the applets have a crude relationship
with the sizes of the satellites.
They're different merely for artistic effect.
- The Spanish
version
of this applet comes in a pop-up
window, so it can be resized.
Astronomy Animations
Solar
System Map
Astronomy Applets

Copyright (c) 1999-2003 Jordi Mas Trullenque.Page
revised 2003-12-22. 
Self-link: http://purl.oclc.org/net/jordi/castro/satgali.en.html
email: jordimastrullenque at yahoo dot com