XIII. Attachments

Attachment B: Processed Data Representations

In this representation, the vertical distance is the observed distance of Callisto from the center of Jupiter. The red dots represent the distances recorded by Tim, and the blue line represents equation that best fits the data. One parameter of the equation is the period of the curve, and is the orbital period of Callisto. Tim’s observations yielded an equation period that has within10.5 minutes (0.0% difference) when compared to NASA data for Callisto of nearly 17 days!

In this representation, the vertical distance is the observed distance of Ganymede from the center of Jupiter. The red dots represent the distances recorded by Tim, and the orange line represents equation that best fits the data. On the graph the days on the x-axis represent the number of days since midnight on September 2, 2002 (GMT), the date that Tim logged his first JD estimate. Tim’s observations yielded an equation period that has a 0.6% difference when compared to NASA data for Ganymede!

The next representation is concerning the distance from the red dots to the colored lines, i.e., how close the observations fit to the equations for the motions that were developed. In the below chart the observation-equation differences were placed into 0.36 JD wide groups. By far the largest number of observations are in the 0.33 JD group, meaning 11 of Tim’s 29 observations were accurate to between 0.54 and 0.18 JD. Tim attained a high degree of accuracy in estimating the Jupiter-moon separations. The observations outside the 0.33 and -0.03 JD groupings lie in a statistically expected pattern.

In the above representation Tim’s data for the moon Callisto is compared to observation data from four other Quad-A members, all data from the Fall of 2002. The observational data represented is from CCD measurements, Astrometric measurements and other observers using the JD estimating method. We have normalized the data to a consistent amplitude for comparison purposes. Tim’s JD estimates are very consistent with measurements taken by others. For this graph the zero days point is August 30, 2002, a change from other graphs in this section so that all available data can be represented.