Bad Astronomy | 22 Aug 2010
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Jupiter Gets Smacked Yet Again?BREAKING: Japanese astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa may have spotted yet another impact on Jupiter!
Emily Lakdawalla at The Planetary Society blog has the details. [UPDATE: Sky and Telescope has more info too.] The video looks legit, but to be absolutely sure we’ll need to get either more video from a different location, or a telescope that might be able to spot any impact scar left from this.
As Emily points out, there may be a lot more of these than we imagined, and it took constant vigilance of amateur astronomers to find them. If so: very, very cool.
Universe Today | 22 Aug 2010
Yet another Jupiter impact!? August 20, seen from JapanIt looks like once again, Jupiter has taken a hit! And once again an amateur astronomer spotted and captured the event. Masayuki Tachikawa was observing Jupiter on at 18:22 Universal Time on August 20th (early on August 21 in Japan) and his video camera captured a 1-second-long flash on the planet's disk, along the northern edge of the gas giant’s North Equatorial Belt. The event was reported by astronomer Junichi Watanabe from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, on his blog.
Tachikawa lives in Kumamato on the island of Kyushu and was observing with a Philips ToUcam Pro II attached to his 6-inch (150-mm) Takahashi TAO-150 f/7.3 refractor with a Tele Vue 5× Powermate.
So, far no one else has reported seeing the event, and the amateur astronomers who captured earlier Jupiter impacts — Anthony Wesley and Chris Go — were not watching Jupiter at the time.
Planetary Society Blog | 22 Aug 2010
Another Flash on Jupiter!This may be a very common event after all: another optical flash has been observed on Jupiter, again from an observer far east of the Greenwich meridian, though it was not Anthony Wesley (for once). This time it was Japanese amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa who was pointing a video camera-equipped telescope at Jupiter and who was fortunate to capture an optical flash as it happened.
Sky & Telescope | 22 Aug 2010
When amateurs Anthony Wesley and Christopher Go simultaneously witnessed a bright flash on Jupiter last June 3rd, it drove home the startling realization that such events probably occur — and are observable — more often than anyone had imagined.
Well, guess what? Based on a video captured by a Japanese amateur astronomer, it's just happened again!. Masayuki Tachikawa was observing Jupiter early on the morning of August 21st (18:22 Universal Time on the 20th), when his video camera captured a 2-second-long flash on the planet's disk. The location was along the northern edge of Jupiter's North Equatorial Belt, roughly at 17° north and System II longitude 140°.