I guess since I used Meade optics for my observations, it's not _totally_
OT... :)

Maybe some of you mathematically-minded people could solve this one for me:

I tried to reproduce Ole Romer's speed-of-light experiment using eclipses
of Jupiter's Io. Observed times were in very good agreement with times
predicted by popular packages such as Bill Gray's Guide. I timed one
reappearance in October (Oct 25, 00:37:19 UTC) and one last night (Dec 02,
23:10:24 UTC).
During this timespan, Io completed 22 revolutions around Jupiter.
Io's period is (according to The Physicist's Desk Reference) 1d 18h 27m
33.51s.

22 times 1d 18h 27m 33.51s yields 3,362,777 seconds (38 days, 79,577
seconds).

This would put the predicted time for Dec 02 at 22:43:36.

Now, this is 26m 48s earlier than the observed time. The inference would be
that Jupiter is nearly 27 light-minutes further away than it was on October
25th. This is obviously untrue.

So what's the deal here? Please help!


Grant C. Blair
Moorestown, NJ


Grant C. Blair
R & D Division
Stores Automated Systems, Inc.

View index by [date] [author] [subject]
Previous message: Re: [M]: General MAPUG Questions, Ed Stewart-AstroDesigns
Next message: [M]: OT:Telecompressor/Focal Reducer for Meade refractor , M. Gartland
Next message in thread: [M]: Re: [OT] Celestial Mechanics Question, Grant C. Blair