Jupiter's moons in September 2026
Io · Europa · Ganymede · Callisto · 43 mutual events
Jupiter's four big moons put on a show every night. They pass behind it, into its shadow and across its face, and their shadows cross its clouds. Any telescope shows it. This is a mutual-event season: the moons' orbits are edge-on to the Sun, so they eclipse and hide each other. Pick your place to see only what's visible from there.
Where the moons are
Jupiter's equator horizontal, east to the left as in binoculars. Drag through the month or tap an event to jump to it. Full screen (⤢) steps through one night minute by minute. A faded moon is behind the planet; an empty ring is a moon in its shadow. Positions ±0.1 Jupiter radii, for the picture; the times come from JPL.
Events
21 events you can see from New Delhi this month, on 16 nights
Times in IST, when the moon's centre crosses the edge, as almanacs list them. A night runs from noon to noon. Tap an event to see it in the diagram.
Night of Sun 6 Sep
- Europa's shadow crosses Jupiter02:06 enters → 04:58 leaves · 2 h 52 min
Night of Mon 7 Sep
- Ganymede crosses Jupiter01:48 enters → 05:26 leaves · 3 h 38 min
Night of Tue 8 Sep
- Io occults Europa05:18 · 4.2 min
Night of Wed 9 Sep
- Great Red Spot crosses the middle of Jupiter04:46 · on view 03:56–05:36
- Io in Jupiter's shadow05:01 disappears → reappears unseen · 2 h 17 min
Night of Thu 10 Sep
- Io's shadow crosses Jupiter02:24 enters → 04:40 leaves · 2 h 16 min
- Io crosses Jupiter03:03 enters → 05:21 leaves · 2 h 18 min
Night of Sun 13 Sep
- Europa's shadow crosses Jupiter04:40 enters → 07:33 leaves · 2 h 53 min
Night of Tue 15 Sep
- Europa behind Jupiterdisappears unseen → 04:13 reappears · 2 h 54 min
Night of Wed 16 Sep
- Great Red Spot crosses the middle of Jupiter05:35 · on view 04:45–06:25
Night of Thu 17 Sep
- Io's shadow crosses Jupiter04:18 enters → 06:34 leaves · 2 h 16 min
- Io crosses Jupiter05:03 enters → 07:21 leaves · 2 h 18 min
Night of Fri 18 Sep
- Io behind Jupiterdisappears unseen → 04:30 reappears · 2 h 18 min
Night of Mon 21 Sep
- Great Red Spot crosses the middle of Jupiter04:44 · on view 03:54–05:34
Night of Fri 25 Sep
- Ganymede behind Jupiterdisappears unseen → 04:14 reappears · 3 h 40 min
Night of Sat 26 Sep
- Io crosses Jupiter01:32 enters → 03:50 leaves · 2 h 18 min
- Great Red Spot crosses the middle of Jupiter03:54 · on view 03:04–04:44
Night of Sun 27 Sep
- Europa occults Callisto03:58 · 7.0 min
- Europa eclipses Io04:38 · 4.6 min
Night of Mon 28 Sep
- Great Red Spot crosses the middle of Jupiter05:33 · on view 04:43–06:23
Night of Tue 29 Sep
- Europa in Jupiter's shadow04:57 disappears → reappears unseen · 2 h 52 min
Reading the list
Times are when the moon's centre crosses the edge of Jupiter or its shadow, as in published tables. The whole disc takes a few minutes. A start or end marked unseen happens behind Jupiter or inside its shadow. “Only what I can see” keeps events with Jupiter more than 10° up in a dark sky. Positions: JPL DE431 and jup365, with Jupiter as a flattened globe. Mutual-event brightness drops are estimates. Each event happens at the same instant everywhere on Earth. The Great Red Spot is a storm, so its times are estimates. They are when it crosses the middle of the disc (System II, from DE431), taking 91° longitude on 1 Jun 2026 and a drift of 1.75° a month (Sky & Telescope, from the JUPOS drift record). Each degree of error shifts the time by 1.65 min. The spot is well placed for about 50 minutes either side.