Jupiter Gets Smacked Yet Again?

It 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.

Coincidentally, Tammy just posted some tips for observing Jupiter, and with the low cost imagers that are now available, anyone can make discoveries — so go out there are take a look!

Find out more about the impact at the Gish Bar Times, Planetary Blog, Sky and Telescope and Sky Week (in German)