While major cities are pretty terrible for most kinds of observational astronomy, bright objects are still always possible targets, and even the seemingly best-known objects often have surprises from the careful observer. 

On September 13, José Luis Pereira of Brazil observed Jupiter during some pretty iffy weather conditions just in case something interesting happened. And it looks like he was able to catch the bright flash of some object – rock or ice or a combo of both – impacting Jupiter’s cloudy atmosphere. 

We used to think that these impacts were extremely rare, but as the cost of digital cameras has dropped, amateur astronomers have discovered more and more of these impacts. There is also bespoke software for finding these flashes – DeTeCt by Marc Delcroix. If you are the proud owner of a telescope and camera of any kind, this kind of science may be for you. We have links to the needed tools on our website, DailySpace.org.

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Amateurs Spot New Impact Flash at Jupiter (Sky & Telescope)