Feb. 22, 2002, Jupiter Photo Gallery
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Summary: Earth's Moon and the giant planet Jupiter had a close encounter in the sky on Feb. 22 and 23, 2002. After sunset on Friday, Feb. 22nd, North Americans saw the eye-catching pair less than one Moon-width apart. Then, on Saturday morning, Feb. 23rd, some European sky watchers saw the Moon pass directly in front of Jupiter -- an event astronomers call a "lunar occultation."

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  Photographer, Location, Local Date Larger images, videos Comments

Thierry Legault, Paris, France, USA #1 T. Legault: "I captured this image using a Olympus E-10 digital camera on a 7" telescope a few seconds before occultation from Paris, France. "

Dr. P. Clay Sherrod, Arkansas Sky Observatory, Arkansas, USA #1 C. Sherrod:"This image was taken through our observatory's portable Meade 10-inch LX200 telescope. This is very similar to the impression and color seen in good binoculars"

Jeff Brown, Dayton, Ohio, USA #1 The thumbnail is a modified (squashed) version of the real-life full-sized image, which shows Jupiter and the Moon -- joined briefly in the sky by an airplane flying over Dayton, Ohio. Photo details: Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera, 2x lens.

Jimmy Westlake, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA #1,#2 J. Westlake: "What I like about these conjunctions is the 3-dimensional effect I get as the Moon glides past the distant planet. I was able to get both objects in the field of my 11" Celestron at prime focus. One image is properly exposed for the Moo (1/250 sec exp., Kodak MAX 400 film) and the other is exposed (1 sec exp., Kodak MAX 400 film) to capture Jupiter's moons."

Steve Rismiller, Milford, Ohio, USA #1 S. Rismiller: "I used a 102 Vixen ED refractor employing a 32mm Brandon eyepiece and a Nikon 995 digital camera to capture this event near midnight on February 22, 2002."

Mark Hansen, Grand Rapids Amateur Astro. Association, Greenville, Michigan, USA #1 Photo details: 8" SCT, 19mm Panoptic and DC215 Kodak digital camera.

More images (click on the name of the photographer to view the image):
Steve Yates (Fort Worth, TX, USA); Mirjana Bejtovic (Grand Prairie, TX, USA)

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