One thought on “Visualizing North America on Jupiter”
I was at my telescope in July, 1994 to watch the Shoemaker-Levy comet hit Jupiter. The actual collision was on the back side, but a few minutes later the impact sites rotated into view. At first, I thought the new eyepiece I had bought for the occasion had a speck on it. Then I gasped as I realized what I was looking at. The black spot was much bigger than I had expected. Even so, it was a tiny speck compared to the size of the planet. When I had calmed down enough to do some measurements and calculations, I realized that the earth would have fit very nicely into that speck.
I was at my telescope in July, 1994 to watch the Shoemaker-Levy comet hit Jupiter. The actual collision was on the back side, but a few minutes later the impact sites rotated into view. At first, I thought the new eyepiece I had bought for the occasion had a speck on it. Then I gasped as I realized what I was looking at. The black spot was much bigger than I had expected. Even so, it was a tiny speck compared to the size of the planet. When I had calmed down enough to do some measurements and calculations, I realized that the earth would have fit very nicely into that speck.