Great Red Spot transit times, 2008

Following are Great Red Spot transit times for 2008. They are based on a longitude of the GRS of 114 degrees (System II, used in measuring longitudes for cloud features far from the equator). Since clouds don't stay fixed, that longitude will slowly become outdated; if you happen to actually observe Jupiter, you'll find that these predictions may be off by a few minutes. (And of late, the GRS has been moving more rapidly than usual, toward increasing longitudes; I wouldn't be surprised if the actual transit times are a few minutes later than those given below.)

If you do observe the Great Red Spot, please send your observations to me! I'll use them to get a corrected longitude and to post corrected data. But right now, the following should be considered accurate.

You can sometimes get updated longitudes for the GRS from this site, which also includes data on transit times and longitudes for other features on Jupiter.

There is also a page of GRS transit times and information on the Sky & Telescope Web site. The layout is somewhat different from the following, and may be more appealing to some people.

You can also get Jupiter's central meridians for any desired time, in all three systems, from this site.

The following data were computed using Guide 8.0 . All times are in Universal Time.

Click here for a simple formula to compute GRS transit times. As a side benefit, the formula also provides the longitude of the central meridian of Jupiter, in all three of the Jovian longitude systems.

Click for a list of Jovian satellite events in 2008