Jupiter Occultation - Oct 6, 2026

After an extended period of poor weather, the sky was beautifully clear last night and into the early morning. I had planned to record the occultation of Jupiter and was pleased to have the opportunity to do so, although the session did not proceed entirely as expected.

I left home at 2:00 AM for CrossLife Bible Church, where I could obtain an unobstructed view toward the east at an altitude of only 10–15 degrees. Tall trees surround most of my property, leaving very little visibility below 25 degrees, and the new observatory limits the horizon to approximately 20–25 degrees. Consequently, using the EdgeHD for a closer view was not practical.

I arrived at the church at 2:25 AM and set up the GT102 with the ASI462MC camera. Although the main event was not expected to begin until close to 4:00 AM, I prefer to prepare early in case technical issues arise. That decision proved worthwhile: the MeLE computer that controls the equipment was missing several software applications and device drivers. I quickly downloaded and installed the required components and was ready by 3:15 AM. The issue occurred because I was using the MeLE under a local user account that had not been fully configured.

Europa was the first object scheduled to disappear behind the Moon’s bright limb, at 4:15:58 AM. Because the Galilean moons were much dimmer than the Moon, I did not attempt to record them during the disappearance phase and instead concentrated on Jupiter.

At 4:18 AM, I began recording with the exposure set for Jupiter. Beginning at approximately 4:20:30 AM, Jupiter was completely occulted over an elapsed time of about one minute. All times are approximate unless otherwise noted.

Afterward, I waited approximately one hour for the reappearance. Europa was scheduled to emerge at 5:19:09 AM. Using a significantly longer exposure, I successfully recorded Europa, Callisto, and Io reappearing in succession. I then readjusted the camera settings for Jupiter and captured its reappearance. Finally, I increased the exposure again to record Ganymede reappearing at 5:26:35 AM. I had also hoped to include the Moon in the image, but its unilluminated portion was too faint for the equipment configuration used during this session.

Overall, the session was highly rewarding. The complete video is available on my YouTube channel:

Jupiter Occultation – October 6, 2026

With the occultation successfully recorded, I am now preparing both telescopes for several more nights of favorable observing conditions at home.