Question about dot on Jupiter

Jupiter is very bright in the sky right now, and before the moon comes up is very clear even with a small telescope.

I am seeing tonight for the first time on Jupiter, right in the center, a little black dot. It looks like a shadow of a moon but I can't tell, I do see 4 big moons around Jupiter so not sure if it can be one of their shadows since they seem at the wrong angle.

Does anyone know if this is a moon or not and if so which one is it? It's such a cute little dot!

reply to post by salsaking


It was probably either Ganymede or Io depending on when you saw it. You can use this java script utility to tell you the position of the Galilean satellites for any date from 1900 - 2100 AD.

Jupiter's Moons

Very cool! Looks like at the time I saw the shadow it would have been Ganymede.

Thanks!