This image of Jupiter was created from the best 30 frames of video from a 450 frame video sequence acquired on 4-Apr-2015. It was not a good night to image Jupiter - seeing was poor and it was windy. But I wanted to try some new gear, including an eight inch reflector telescope and a Televue 2X PowerMate focal extender. I added an old 2X barlow lens, and shot the video with a Philips SPC900NC webcam at 3,200 mm focal length (f/16).

I was a little surprised to get a recognizable image of the planet, but more surprised by the extra detail. Just to the right of Jupiter is its moon Io, and on the surface of the planet you can see Io's shadow.

On Jupiter, with its many moons, solar eclipses are not that uncommon, but this was the first time I had captured one. The video feed was very fuzzy, and it took me a while to realize what caused the dark spot. I checked charts, thinking that one of Jupiter's moons was crossing in front of the planet, but that was not the case - Io had finished its transit a few minutes before my first video sequence, leaving its shadow trailing behind.