Amateurs prepare big-picture perspective to support Juno mission
Some of the world's leading amateur and professional astronomers are meeting on 12-13 May to prepare for a campaign of ground-based global observations in support of NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter. Juno arrives on 4th July this year and will investigate Jupiter through a series of long elliptical orbits with close flybys of the giant planet. To put these observations into perspective and to understand Jupiter's atmospheric dynamics, the Juno project on behalf of NASA has requested the collaboration of amateur astronomers back on Earth. High-resolution observations obtained by amateur astronomers will allow Juno mission scientists to characterise the state and evolution of Jupiter's atmosphere over the course of the mission, which is due to end in February 2018.