30th Anniversary of the Voyager 1 Flyby of Jupiter Options

[volcanopele]

Today marks the 30th anniversary of Voyager 1's flyby of Jupiter. On March 5, 1979, Voyager 1 flew through the Jupiter system providing a wealth of information of Jupiter, its magnetic field, and moons. Thanks to Voyager 1, the Galilean satellites became worlds with real geology and amazing vistas. Voyager 1 also revealed Jupiter's ring system and Io's volcanism for the first time.

I've written up a longer post about the encounter with Io on my blog, which also has an animation of the flyby: http://gishbar.blogspot.com/2009/03/30th-a...1-flyby-of.html

[tasp]

I really appreciate this thread as 30 years ago I totally missed the Voyager 1 Jupiter encounter. I had signed up for the Eclipse over Big Sky Country and was in Montana enjoying the Huntley Lodge and watching the last total solar eclipse visible from the continental US till 2017. The eclipse was grand and a lifetime memorable event, and it was just about the only thing that could have kept me from watching the Jupiter spectacular.

I was surprised shortly after the trip to note Time magazine had covered the flyby and the eclipse in the same issue. There were roughly 400 eclipse chasers in the Eclipse Bus Caravan (LOL) and we wound up watching from just west of Roundup, Montana. The trip organizers had access to weather satellite imagery (I have no idea how they did this in 1979) and managed to put the Eclipse Bus Caravan under a break in the clouds as the eclipse passed over us. We did have some high altitude haze, but it actually enhanced the view.

To make up for missing the Voyager encounter I ordered every 35mm slide set I could find and bought a slide projector. Much more handy to have the enhanced pictures here at UMSF.

Thanx!