Mike Salway, the well known astro-photographer from Australia, took a sequence of images of Ganymede and Io with his DMK 21AU04.AS astronomy camera, made an animation with them, and sent this stunning animation to us.

Here is what he said in the email:

This morning I was able to capture my first Galilean Moon occultation, when Ganymede passed in front of Io, covering about 40% of the volanic moon. The seeing was reasonably stable, maybe 6.5/10 and the morning started off beautiful and clear. Some cloud bands came through right at the wrong time, ruining some of the sequences right in the middle of the occultation. Of course it cleared completely after the event was all over. Despite the annoying clouds almost ruining my chances of capturing anything of the occultation, I was able to image enough of the event to put together this 32-frame animation, covering 33 minutes of elapsed time. Detail and albedo features can be seen on both moons. Ganymede Occulting Io Animation. For more info about my capture and processing settings for this event, and why it’s even so special at all: Ganymede Occulting Io – My First Galilean Moon Occultation.

Well done Mike! Thank you!