Solar Eclipse on Jupiter Captured by Home Telescope Leaves Internet Stunned

An image of a “spectacular” solar eclipse on Jupiter has mesmerized viewers on Reddit.
The incredible moment was captured by AJ Smadi, a 19-year-old “astrophotographer” in Washington state (@aj.smadi on Instagram), who shared the image in a viral post on Reddit under the username Correct_Presence_936. The post has had 17,000 upvotes since it was shared on October 13.
“I took that picture with my Celestron 5SE telescope and a ZWO ASI294MC camera,” Smadi told Newsweek. “I planned it days in advance with an app called Stellarium. It was captured around 1 p.m. UTC on Sunday, October 13.”
A caption shared with the post reads: “I Captured a Solar Eclipse on Another Planet. Jupiter and Io in Daylight This Morning Through My Telescope.”
The image shows Jupiter—the largest planet in the solar system and the fifth planet from the sun—next to a small dot that is lo, one of the four largest of Jupiter’s officially recognized 95 moons.
Discovered on January 8, 1610, by Galileo Galilei, lo is “the most volcanically active world in the solar system,” as home to hundreds of volcanoes, with some erupting lava fountains reaching dozens of miles high, according to NASA.
“Eclipses on Jupiter are not exceptionally rare,” NASA says, “given the planet’s large size compared to its many moons and greater distance from the Sun.”
Just five of Jupiter’s moons—Amalthea, Io, Europe, Ganymede and Callisto—are large enough or close enough to the planet to eclipse the sun. Because of the low tilts of the moons’ orbits, they cast a shadow on every revolution, so “double, triple and multiple simultaneous eclipses are not uncommon,” according to NASA.
NASA says: “Given the number of Jupiter’s moons, especially the four large Galilean moons, and that their orbits all lie very close to Jupiter’s equatorial plane, they occasionally eclipse each other, with the outer moons passing between the Sun and the inner moons.
“When Earth passes through Jupiter’s equatorial plane, fortunate observers can capture these rare events using ground-based telescopes, sometimes accidentally as they observe the Galilean moons for other reasons.”
Viewers on Reddit were blown away by the solar eclipse on Jupiter in the viral post.
Enincha said: “Wow, incredible shot. Jupiter’s got that photogenic vibe.”
Squawk7984 said: “Ya gotta frame this! Hang this up for all to see! Matte it too! This is spectacular.”
TheDukeofArgyll wrote: “Wow that’s amazing. Incredible accomplishment.”
Puzzleheaded-Phase70 agreed, saying: “WOW that’s really cool! Only time I’ve seen better was when my astronomy club in middle school watched Shoemaker-Levi hit Jupiter at the local observatory. It’s amazing you can do this at home!”
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