Shortcut to Times of Satellite events, November 8
On November 8 UT (the morning of November 9, New Zealand and Australian time), Jupiter will briefly be observable with none of the four Galilean satellites visible clear of the Jovian disk. Such an event is fairly rare due to the locked nature of the orbits of the three inner satellites and the inclination of the orbits which is sufficient for Callisto, the outer of the four, to pass above or below Jupiter and its shadow for about 50% of its orbits.
On November 8, Europa and Ganymede will be eclipsed as they pass through the Jovian shadow, while Io and Callisto will "disappear" as they transit across the face of Jupiter. The actual time during which no satellites will be visible is from about 16:26 UT when Ganymede moves into eclipse until 16:43 UT when the transit of Io ends. In fact it is likely to be about 16:30 before Ganymede finally fades from view. Thus all four satellites will be "invisible" for about 15 minutes.
Observation of Jupiter without its satellites will be hampered (but not made impossible) by morning twilight for New Zealand observers; however Australian observers, particularly those in the east should have a good view.
At the time Jupiter will be almost due north as seen from New Zealand, with an altitude of about 31° from Auckland down to about 21° from Invercargill.
The satellites will disappear over a period of about 2 hours and it will be some 5 hours later before they are all visible again. This will be long after sunrise in New Zealand. The "timetable" of events below shows the times of events in UT, followed by NZDT. The date is 2001 November 8 (UT) or the morning of 2001 November 9 (NZDT).
1412 UT (312 am NZDT) II Europa disappears into eclipse.
1430 UT (330 am NZDT) I Io starts to transit the face of Jupiter.
1521 UT (421 am NZDT) IV Callisto starts to transit the face of Jupiter.
1626 UT (526 am NZDT) III Ganymede disappears into eclipse.
1643 UT (543 am NZDT) I Io ends transit of Jupiter.
1700 to 1710 UT (600 to 610 am NZDT) Sunrise in New Zealand
1757 UT (657 am NZDT) IV Callisto ends transit of Jupiter.
1850 UT Sunrise at Brisbane
1905 UT Sunrise at Melbourne
1912 UT (812 am NZDT) II Europa emerges from occultation behind Jupiter.
1923 UT (823 am NZDT) III Ganymede emerges from eclipse.
For New Zealand observers the disappearances of Europa into eclipse and the starts of the transits of Io and Callisto will occur while the sky is dark. However the Sun will be only about 7° below the horizon when Ganymede disappears into eclipse, that is there will be considerable twilight. However with a magnitude of 4.7 there should be no difficulty in seeing the satellite, through binoculars or a small telescope, as it disappears, although the time taken for it to disappear is likely to be less than the 5 minutes suggested above.
By the time Io is due to leave the face of Jupiter 15 minutes later, the Sun will be about 4° below the horizon, making twilight far stronger. Even so it is likely that it will be possible to make out the bulge of Io as it reappears from the Jovian disk.
Transits start at the east limb of Jupiter and end at the west. Io will transit a little south of Jupiter's equator while Callisto will transit considerably nearer the South pole. The eclipse disappearances will take place to the west of Jupiter, Europa will be about 1.5 times the radius of Jupiter distant from the limb while Ganymede will be about 2.3 times the radius of Jupiter from the limb. The eclipse of Europa actually ends at 16:58 UT, but by that time Europa will be occulted behind Jupiter and so not be visible again until it emerges from the occultation on the east limb of Jupiter over 2 hours later.
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