Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Friday, February 18th.  The sun will rise at 7:38.  It’ll be up for 10 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 6:14.   The moon, at full today, will rise at 7:10 this evening.

Ever since Jupiter appeared in the morning sky, after passing behind the sun, 9 months ago it had lost its dark southern equatorial belt.  Now there are visual and infrared signs that the belt is coming back.  Belts are lower clouds than the bright clouds.  They appear bright in the infrared.  While Jupiter’s cloud tops are 200 degrees below zero, the interior of Jupiter is incredibly hot.  In fact it radiates twice as much heat as it gets from the sun.  Where the southern equatorial belt should be there is a crack appearing in the high cloud deck where the interior heat is showing up.  We are getting to the point where Jupiter is going to pass behind the sun and out of view.  April 6th is that date.  I wonder if we are going to be able to see the complete restoration of the belt.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.