Astroblog: Look at Jupiter tonight

Friday, May 05, 2006

Look at Jupiter tonight

Jupiter is at opposition tonight, when it is at it's biggest and brightest. Oppositions of Jupiter don't get as much press as oppositions of Mars, probably because a) Mars holds such iconic staus in our imaginations, and b) even at it's furthest, Jupiter is still big and bright.

None the less, Jupiter and its Moons will be excellent objects tonight and for the rest of the month in binoculars or a small telescope (if you have a big telescope, then it goes wihout saying Jupiter will be good). SO do your level best to get to a telescope soon. Jupiter is failry easy to recognise, in the veneing, it is the brightest object in the eastern sky. Startlingly bright, although not as bright as Venus. Jupiter is just in from of the "T" shaped group of stars that mark the head of the constelation of Scorpius, the scorpio, making that area of the sky rather attractive.

Tonight there is a dual transit and shadow transit of Io, starting at 17:20 and finishing at 21:20 tonight (ACST), but you will need a medreate sized telescope to see this.

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 7:21 am

Comments:

An apt post as last night I wandered out several times to the back yard and spent some time, 'stargazing' always done it and will keep doing it. Their is something enjoyabe of looking up at that wide expance of lights and wondering.

# posted by