The shadows of three of Jupiter's four largest moons will cast shadows on Jupiter at the same time on Friday night in a rare event. The moons - Io, Europa and Callisto - will cross Jupiter's disc as well as in front of the planet, according to a press release by the Griffith Observatory. Ganymede will be visible, but it will not cast a shadow on Jupiter.
This celestial event will not occur again until 2032 where it will be visible from the Los Angeles site, according to the Griffith Observatory.
You can see it from the telescopes or lawn at the observatory if you live in the Hollywood area. For the rest of us, we can watch a live stream right here, starting at Friday, Jan. 23 at 11:30 p.m. EST (8:30 p.m. PST) and ending sometime around 2 a.m. EST on Saturday (11 p.m. PST on Friday).
For a preview of what you will see, check out this animation posted on YouTube by Griffith Observatory:
The timeline is as follows, per the observatory (all times PST):
"6:22 p.m. Jupiter rises at Griffith Observatory
7:11 p.m. Shadow of Callisto ingress (begins to cross the disk of Jupiter)
8:35 p.m. Shadow of Io ingress
8:54 p.m. Io transit ingress
9:40-9:59 p.m. Io (in transit) is eclipsed by Callisto and Io's shadow merges with Callisto's
10:12-10:30 p.m. Io transits Callisto's shadow
10:27 p.m. Europa shadow ingress (start of triple-transit)
10:52 p.m. Io shadow egress (end of triple-transit)
11:00 p.m. Griffith Observatory event ends
11:08 p.m. Europa transit ingress
11:12 p.m. Io transit egress
midnight Callisto shadow egress
1:22 a.m. Europa shadow egress
2:02 a.m. Europa transit egress
3:02 a.m. Callisto transit egress"
Griffith Observatory is owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks.
