Photo of the Week for January 3, 2014

Andrew Kwon captured this stunningly detailed image of Jupiter — probably the best we’ve ever seen taken from Canada — on November 20, 2013 from his backyard observatory in Mississauga. Swirling clouds of ammonia compounds forming distinct belts in Jupiter’s atmosphere are seen in wonderful detail in this image acquired under superb seeing conditions. Two of Jupiter’s moons, Io (left) and Europa (right) are visible as well as a the black shadow of Europa on the giant planet’s clouds. Equipment used: An 11-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope operating at f/24 with a 2× Barlow, Astronomik RGB filters, and an ASI120mm monochrome CCD camera.