One of the benefits of having the planet at a good altitude is that quality images can be obtained over a longer period of time. With this year’s altitude above the horizon at transit of about 63 degrees, Jupiter can be imaged for 3-4 hours to produce interesting animations. We’re still somewhat limited by sunrise, so this imaging session was about 90 minutes (I took the last 45 minutes for Mars). Here is an animation of Jupiter’s rotation during that time, composed from 14 individual images.
The images are projected onto a flat map, aligned and balance, then mapped onto a sphere representing Jupiter. That sphere is then rotated in 30 second increments to produce this short animation covering 7:27 ut to 9:02 ut on the morning of September 13. Click on the image below to see the animation (15mb).
Individual images from this session can be seen here.
Wayne J.
