A bright spot on Io (October 2nd.) by D.Peach


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A bright spot on Io (October 2nd.) by D.Peach


A bright spot on Io (October 2nd.) by D.Peach
While trawling through data from Barbados i came across this very interesting image from October 2nd 
obtained through a blue filter in near perfect seeing. 
It shows a distinct bright spot on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io. 
Consulting the USGS map the feature matches Tiermes Patera.

The feature is definitely not an artifact - even with very modest sharpening it is obvious. 
Io at this time was almost as large as it can ever appear from Earth at 1.27" arc seconds while the resolving
 power of the telescope is at is maximum is short wavelengths.


The spot is also present in the R and G filter data and also in data captured by Ian Sharp at the same time so its certainly a real feature.

I actually found another set of B filter data after Io emerged from occultation later in the night. 
The feature is still visible but the CML is slightly different.

[Damian Peach: Loudwater,Buckinghamshire,United Kingdom]

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